The Recruited

A present day corporate horror-story, we find ourselves in the boondocks of Georgia. Somewhere outside Macon… or Cordell. Our story is told from the perspective of an intelligent young black woman, Janelle, looking to break out from her job as bartender at the local sports pub.

She drives off into the middle of nowhere to a private recruitment event run by a trillion-dollar energy conglomerate simply titled [BLANK]. She joins the corporate ritual event and as it unravels, finds herself distanced symbolically, physically, mentally from the real world. The ritual occurs on a private compound owned and operated by [BLANK], akin to the contained nature of movies like Ready or Not or Get Out and the elimination angle of movies like Circle or Exam.

This project began as an exploration of what it’s like to be a black woman assimilating to a coroprate environment — specifically from the aspect of finance. This inception point took its own track and required investigating the current state of the job market. We’re talking a lot about how hard it is to find a job. Many people are keeping unsatisfactory jobs that don’t pay enough, because it’s better than being stuck without a job when they’re getting rid of all the entry-level positions.

Janelle is a more-than-capable employee who takes a chance on a company, thinking it can sustain her even though she knows the environment will drain her. What she doesn’t realize is just how far the company is willing to go. We’ve tucked into our story some commentary on AI, fraternity culture, and social gamification. The project was a finalist in a greenlight competition run by Quibi Distribution and has been advanced for Open Writing Assignments. This feature represents a desire from Black creatives to speak on the complexities of our experiences in the modern work industry, all through an entertaining genre lens.