MISSION STATEMENT
The Dennis Boys is loosely based on the lives of my brother and I shortly before our mother passed away. It combines elements of realism, coming-of age, and fantasy with an allegorical superhero story. This film looks to celebrate the oft overlooked perspective of the suburban black experience.
...where a nerdy kid from the suburbs had a dream to be a comic book artist, and quickly decided that's not gonna happen, I pivoted to screenwriting. Then, in 2014, I started writing what would become THE DENNIS BOYS. After several years, several drafts, and several great suggestions from people much smarter than me (#EveryoneNeedsAJamie) the script was done and was submitted to various scriptwriting competitions.
And in 2017, THE DENNIS BOYS was selected as the inaugural winner of the Oscar Micheaux Award at the the "Set In Philadelphia" Screenwriting Competition sponsored by the Greater Philadelphia Film Office!
After winning the award, my producing partner Jamie Forslund and I decided to expand our team and we brought on two more producers: Adamah Cole and Tatiana Bacchus.
Together, we concocted a plan to prove to ourselves and to the world that THE DENNIS BOYS was not only worthwhile, but necessary!
We scraped some money together and in 2022 we produced a proof of concept film to show the industry what we're capable of:
All of our hard work (and the work of our fabulous crew) paid off as THE DENNIS BOYS short film was selected to screen at several film festivals including the New York Shorts International Film Festival and the Jim Thorpe Independent Film Festival!
Prior to making the short version of THE DENNIS BOYS, Jamie was able to connect us with animator Matt Somma who graciously allowed us to use some of his animations in the proof of concept.
However, we knew that to really show people what they were in store for, we need to get Matt started on the actual characters that would appear in the feature film...
Finally able to put my art degrees to good use, I did some character sketches and sent them to Matt...
...and he absolutely knocked it out of the park!
And with that, the pieces were in place. Now, here's where you come in!
Please follow THE DENNIS BOYS on social media -- we're on Instagram @thedennisboysfilm and consider making a tax-deductible donation!