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Miss Represent

“Miss Represent” takes the ever familiar social media world and cleverly presents it to viewers in a fashion that is rarely seen on film by taking a social media post and transplanting it from the online world to an actual place...a woman’s living room! Every person (commenter) represents a reaction (like, love, haha, angry, sad, and wow - while even wearing the colors of the emojis/reactions). This is a story about how being yourself is always better than “misrepresenting” yourself to the world of social media.

  • Ken Lewis
    Director
    The Final Interrogation
  • Ken Lewis
    Writer
    The Final Interrogation
  • UrbanLenz
    Producer
    The Final Interrogation
  • Michaele Nicole
    Key Cast
    "Kim"
  • Demetrius Lovejoy
    Key Cast
    "Lee"
  • Twon Cruz
    Key Cast
    "Will"
  • Chantelly Johnson
    Key Cast
    "Karen"
  • Fania Bourn
    Key Cast
    "Zola"
  • France Jean-Baptiste
    Key Cast
    "Auntie Judy"
  • Grisel Perez
    Key Cast
    "Grisel"
  • Des Monica
    Key Cast
    "De"
  • Project Type:
    Short
  • Runtime:
    22 minutes 19 seconds
  • Completion Date:
    November 27, 2018
  • Production Budget:
    11,000 USD
  • Country of Origin:
    United States
  • Country of Filming:
    United States
  • Language:
    English
  • Shooting Format:
    Blackmagic Ursa Mini 4.6K
  • Aspect Ratio:
    16:9
  • Film Color:
    Color
  • First-time Filmmaker:
    No
  • Student Project:
    No
Director Biography - Ken Lewis

Sometimes the person is merely a prop in the overall image, at least that’s what Chicago-based filmmaker Ken Lewis of UrbanLenz says. With a tagline of “finding the most stunning beauty in the most urban of places”, Ken is quite adept at using natural environments to capture stunning backdrops for photo and video compositions. Starting out as a photographer, Ken quickly became obsessed with the video capabilities of his DSLR camera and started to make video compositions for locals artists. After posting a quick 7-minute dialogue-free passion project entitled “Jean” (a story about addiction and depression), he was encouraged by many to enter into the film festival circuit. Surprisingly, it was accepted and has been screened at the Cinema New York film festival, and was a semi-finalist in both the London and Washington international film festivals. After that project, he decided to take filmmaking much more serious and began writing several screenplays trying to strategically determine which one of them would be made into his next film.

“The Final Interrogation” was the chosen one. “The Final Interrogation” is an innovative film that centers around the consequences of sacrificing your own well-being for other people who may be undeserving. The film was critically acclaimed because it led the viewer to believe that the lead character was being interrogated by a police officer about a murder that he committed when actually it was HIM who was murdered and that the “interrogation officer” was his deceased mother talking to him from purgatory. It seemed that travelling down the dramatic road worked for Ken, as that film was accepted and screened in seven film festivals and even winning an “Award of Merit” from the Indie FilmFest. Looking to expand his reach beyond dramatic films, he decided to go into the realm of comedy with his 3rd film “Miss Represent”.

Ken holds both an undergraduate degree in Electrical Engineering and an MBA from Purdue University. He lives in Chicago, IL with his wife and two daughters and enjoys honing his craft at filmmaking, spending time with family, and watching professional sports.

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Director Statement

I usually don’t believe in writer’s block, but I swear that I had it like hell for most of 2018. I had been wrecking my brain since my last film “The Final Interrogation” to come up with a concept that was both familiar, but different at the same time. I worked on three screenplays all at once, but couldn’t seem to finish any one of them. So one day, I went on a particular social media platform and it hit me dead in the face: write a film about social media! I always wanted to write a film that was relevant, intelligent, but most of all...funny. A HUGE takeaway from my film festival run with dramatic films is that it’s hard to gauge the level of engagement of the audience. My last film had such a big twist at the end, it left most of the audience speechless. I mean c’mon, you spend the entire film thinking that this guy murdered someone and is being interrogated by the police when it’s actually HIM that’s deceased and the officer, is his dead mother. Yeah, you could hear a pin drop in those theaters. However, I wanted to write something that would keep the audience engaged and made them feel good AND think at the same time.

Enter “Miss Represent”. There has been tons of films made about social media so I had to come up with an idea of how I could make something that stood out. I decided to take social media and turn it into an actual place. Not only that, I wanted real people to represent the social media reactions and how those people/reactions impacts her. Some platforms of social media will allow you to react according to how you actually FEEL about a picture or a post. If it surprises you, you can react with a “wow”. If it makes you upset, you can react with an “angry”. You get the picture. That’s the innovative part, but I needed a message. Films without a message really irk me. So I wrote down 10 things that everyone generally feels about social media. I put out a few “polls” on...well...social media of course! And I came up with a list of things that the general population found interesting. Most people who post on social media only allow visibility into the good part of their life, which is understandable.

However a majority of people on social media “mis”represent themselves by severely over exaggerating their lives. Then you have the attention seekers (let’s not act like we haven’t all done that or at least thought about it). Well using a play on words, I made the lead character (Michaele Nicole) a woman exaggerating her life on social media who represents the “Miss” in “Miss Represent”. She’s insanely popular and has a hundred thousand followers, get thousands of likes and comments, however if it weren’t for her aunt Judy she’d be homeless. She soon realizes that likes and comments don’t matter at all and sometimes being your true self is all that you really need. Be prepared to think, to laugh really hard, and to see social media get turned into “Miss Represent’s” living room (well ahem, Aunt Judy’s living room)!