#the distinguished

The short is about a young student named Seven, who has been plagued by supernatural dreams of shadow monsters. He goes to a university and wants to pledge to a popular predominantly black fraternity, but doesn’t get in due to having an episode in one of his classes, there’s also his close friend who gets accepted and they share a touching moment. Then the truth or revealed on the same day of his 18th birthday that his father was part of a secret society that’s been protecting this world from the same shadow people he’s been dreaming about.

The fact that I was invested in under 8 minutes tells you that this needs to become a series. It’s got a promising premise, an interesting black main character, afro-LGBTQ+ romance and it’s got mystery, supernatural, and fantastical elements. I’ve been saying for YEARS that we need better stories being told from the black experience but in a more fantastical sense. No more struggle love, segregation, slavery, hood/gang-related black trauma stories. This is what we need more of (as well as black x black relationships hetero or queer).