Team Marilyn

TEAM MARILYN
Director’s Statement
By LaToya Morgan
Team Marilyn began in the wake of the cataclysm that was the 2016 election. I, like so
many people, woke up devastated by the new world order. To console myself, I began
thinking about what kind of candidate could challenge in 2020. I was longing for a fresh
face and exciting voice. New blood for this new era. Since 94% of Black women had
valiantly voted to oppose Trump during the campaign, my mind immediately went to a
Black woman as a figure who could potentially change the direction of this country.
But what if this woman had a secret? One that could derail her chances of winning?
We thought America was ready for a woman in the highest office in the land, but are
they really ready for a Black woman? And a closeted queer one to boot?
I ate, slept, and breathed politics in college. So much so that I became a community
organizer for three years after school. Despite doing significant advocacy work on
social justice issues, I was not open about who I was as a person. I hid by omission
the fact that I was as a queer Black woman for a long time. It took years before I was
ever even able to say the words “lesbian” or “queer” out loud without blushing. Not out
of shame, but out of my desire for privacy. I already had the double bind of being Black
and a woman to deal with. Did I really need a third label?
Then I fell in love with a woman who was even more closeted than I was. A serious
question loomed over everything we did. Is a love that exists only behind closed doors
even real? That became the impetus for this short film.
This narrative takes a bit of my personal story and fuses it with a fictional one to give
the audience an intense glimpse behind the curtain. I love the inherent pressure of the
political world and decided to set it on the grandest scale of American politics.
My favorite dramatic stories to tell are of those of relationships in crisis and this story
has not one, but two of them built into its core. I’ve never seen this kind of story told
about women of color by women of color on the big or small screen.
As a first time director, I’ve done everything I can to make this an achievable project.
Everything from the single location to working with a seasoned producer in Sue-Ellen
Chitunya who has made several shorts. This is a compelling story that can be told
efficiently and economically.
I once saw that third label as a burden, but now I realize it’s made me a triple threat.
The world needs more stories by women, people of color and from the LGBTQ
community. Where I once hid in the shadows, I now want to make my voice heard.