EXCLUSIVE: Jada Keche (Reasonable Doubt), Lionel Johnson Jr. (Darwin) and Carolyn Michelle Smith (Familiar Touch) have attached to star in Lowndes County, the debut narrative feature of award-winning artist Kevin Jerome Everson.
Just recently wrapping production in Columbus, Mississippi, the film is set in rural Mississippi in 1959, five years after Brown v. Board of Education and five years before the 1964 Civil Rights Act. A year of deep uncertainty. Penned by Everson and playwright Talaya Delaney, and based on the experiences of Everson’s father and uncle as teenage bus drivers in Columbus, Mississippi in the 1950s, the story centers on Borne (Keche), a brave, resourceful African-American teenager and her older brother Gago (Johnson Jr.), who must fight against a system determined to break them, and use their daring to fix their school bus after it is vandalized. To achieve their dreams, and ensure their safe passage to school, they turn to the strength, power and resources of their community, and learn through Cassilee, the “Queen of Catfish Alley” (Smith), the lessons of history.
A trilobite-arts DAC production, the film was produced by Madeleine Molyneaux, alongside Everson, Delaney and Kahlil I. Pedizisai. Erica Arvold and Dustin Presley were the casting directors.
Previously seen on the shows Reasonable Doubt and Ms. Marvel, Keche is repped by STW Talent Agency.
Seen in the indie thriller Darwin and The CW’s All-American, Johnson Jr. is repped by Daniel Hoff Agency and Tassell Talent Group.
Smith’s credits include And Just Like That…, Familiar Touch, The Chi and Russian Doll, to name just a few. She is repped by Anonymous Content, Buchwald, and Goodman, Genow, Schenkman.
Everson’s work and practice encompasses photography, printmaking, sculpture and film. He has been recognized with the Guggenheim Fellowship, Alpert Award in Film/Video, Heinz Award in Arts & Humanities, Rome Prize, Berlin Prize and grants and commissions from the Ford Foundation, Knight Foundation, and Creative Capital among others. His films, 12 features to date and over 300 solo and collaborative shorts, have premiered at major festivals including Sundance, Berlinale, BlackStar, Locarno, Venice, Toronto, New York Film Festival, BFI/London and AFI Fest and exhibit at museums (Centre Pompidou, Tate Modern, MoMA, Whitney Museum of American Art), galleries and art biennials. He is the Commonwealth and Ruffin Foundation Distinguished Professor of Studio Art and Director of Studio Arts at the University of Virginia.
The post Jada Keche, Lionel Johnson Jr. & Carolyn Michelle Smith To Star In Kevin Jerome Everson’s Debut Narrative Feature ‘Lowndes County’ appeared first on Deadline.
