Local filmmakers aim to break down racial stereotypes with humor
Santana Coleman and Emily Kuester are friends who have led parallel lives in some ways.
Kuester is black and was adopted into a white family living in the Village of Avoca. She graduated from the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. She’s 22 years old. Coleman, on the other hand, grew up in a black family in Milwaukee and went to UW-Platteville (about an hour’s drive from Avoca). She’s 26.
They met while working at 371 Productions in Milwaukee’s Third Ward. And they’d like to create a semiautobiographical short film and, hopefully, a TV series, and they’d like to do it while working with mostly women and people of color.
“We wanted to work with all women but that’s kind of impossible in Milwaukee,” Coleman laughed. “It’s not a huge city, and it’s not a big filmmaking place.”
They’re raising money and awareness for the project right now on Seed and Spark. They have 30 days to raise $10,000 to create the film and get 500 followers. Twenty-three days in, they’ve raised $8,580 and have 468 followers. So far, their crew is about 80 percent female and 80 percent people of color.
Kuester is the producer and Coleman is the director of the short film, which is loosely based on Kuester’s life.
The film will start with the main character, Mia, being presented with information about her biological family from her adopted parents. Mia worries that because she was raised by a white family that she won’t be “black” enough.
It’s similar to what Kuester has gone through in her life, with one big difference. In the movie, Mia meets her biological family. In real life, Kuester hasn’t taken that step yet, and she may not. But the premise of the film is an interesting way to talk about the diversity of American culture because Kuester and Coleman had such different experiences growing up.
“We keep trying to break down white culture and black culture,” said Coleman. “But people have to accept it’s American culture. There are people with all different ways of living here. You have to be yourself and be confident in who you are and understand when a stereotype is rooted in racism or when it’s rooted in culture in itself.”