Academy Award-winning producer Van Lathan, NAACP Award-winning actor Tyrese Gibson, and Emmy-winning Rome Flynn join as executive producers of the new short film called “Talk To Somebody,” produced by A Lit Space Production, which features a troubled teen and his dedicated therapist.
Jamal Akakpo directs the film, starring Sheldon Frett (Get On Up, Shots Fired) as Maurice and Christopher Ammanuel (Euphoria, Power Book III: Raising Kanan) as Elliot.
The cast includes Bentley Green (The Land; a Snoop Dogg biopic) as Thomas, Joshua Suiter (A Different World, All’s Fair) as young Maurice, and Jordon Fite (Power Rangers) as GT.
Armani Greer (Tyler Perry’s Why Did I Get Married Again?) produced the movie. Grammy-nominated Chase The Money served as the movie’s music director.
“Talk to Somebody” had a successful festival run, taking home three awards: the Viewers’ Award from the Oak Park Black Film Festival, the Best Narrative Short Award at the San Antonio International Black Film Festival, and the Grand Jury Award for Narrative Short from the Awareness Film Festival.
The film was a finalist for Best Short Film at SJV Blacksno Film Festival. The film screened at the Greenwood Film Festival, Cannes Indie Shorts, New York Indie Shorts, and qualifies for the Academy Awards.
The story follows Elliot Jones, a 17-year-old boy one wrong move away from the juvenile detention center. Talking therapy is not his first choice, but his last resort. His silence conceals a lifetime of hurts that the system never bothered to heal.
Opposite him sits Maurice Fields, a therapist with scars of his own, haunted by memories of his best friend whom he failed to save. Maurice sees in Elliot an echo of himself.
During their therapy sessions, a line between past and now, between the hurt and the healing, begins to blur. In a world where punishment prevails over understanding, Elliot has to choose between staying silent and talking to somebody.
Watch the trailer for “Talk to Somebody” here.
