Shanrica Evans – 2018 Festival

Casey

A teenager with gender dysphoria witnesses the physical assault of a transgender woman.

About Shanrica Evans

Raised in Atlanta, GA writer/director Shanrica Evans began telling stories at the age of six. Her great-grandmother, grandmother, and mother crafted the best parts of her as each of them carefully instilled wisdom, humor, and sometimes fear into the creative young girl. Shanrica focused her education at the University of Alabama on American Studies. She spent most of her time at the University of Alabama analyzing history and its devastation impacts on present-day issues and earned a BA in American Studies.

Shanrica’s first short film “Blackface” went on to place as a finalist for the Cine Golden Eagle award and play in festivals like the Lone Star Film Festival, Sidewalk Film Festival, Long Beach Indie Film Festival and many more.

She is currently pursuing her MFA at the USC School of Cinematic Arts.

About Casey

When I was in high school I watched two of my peers physically assault a classmate. My bold, fearless classmate tried to take on the two aggressive boys but they were too much for her to handle. Paralyzed by fear I did not help my classmate. I was too afraid that the boys would target their aggression at me if I interjected. The girl that they attacked was named Brittany. Prior to my junior year of high school, Brittany’s name was Brandon. When Brittany came to school at the beginning of junior year and announced that she was trans she was isolated, judged, ridiculed, and frequently experienced violence from our peers. Brittany dropped out of school halfway through our junior year.
When I returned home during my sophomore year of college I asked a mutual friend about Brittany. He told me Brittany had been killed by a guy that she was dating. It’s been five years since Brittany’s murder and I’m still trying to process her death and why she was killed.
This short film is about Brittany and all of the other people that are killed because of who they are. I want to use this short film to question how gender and sexual identities exist in the African-American community.
Contact Shanrica Evans: evanss@usc.edu