Once Upon A Time in the East

SYNOPSIS
Exhausted from travelling town to town recruiting members for their theater Frank LeGrand and Kajala the elephant encounter Capt. Pettieworth and the Rogues who attempt to extort the contents of Frank’s and Kajala’s trunk, but what they get “snot” what they expected.

CONCEPT
As an African-American animator I look for new ways to re-interpret the great American narratives and infuse them with a greater amount of diversity. For years I have wanted to do a story about a wayward buffalo soldier traveling across India on the back of an elephant. As I began to explore ideas for the promotional piece I realized the Grand’s logo was an elephant. This presented the perfect opportunity to explore my cowboy in India idea. 

After 6 years of participating in Grand Cinema’s 72 Hour Film Festival, winning awards for Best Use of Prop in 2011, Honorable Mention in 2015, and the
grand prize Best Film in 2016. The theater invited me to produce a 1 minute short to help recruit members to their non-profit theater. The short needed to
explain the benefits of membership to potential members, and reinforce the fact that the Grand Cinema is a non-profit organization with a mission to share film arts with the community