Award-winning Filmmaker Deborah Riley Draper talks Immigration and Coming of Age in Newest Films

Award-win­ning Film­mak­er Deb­o­rah Riley Drap­er talks Immi­gra­tion and Com­ing of Age in Newest Films

 

Writer and direc­tor Deb­o­rah Riley Drap­er has teamed up with actress Jas­mine Guy to tack­le the issue of immi­gra­tion in their newest film “Ille­gal Rose”. The sto­ry is of a friend­ship between a dis­en­gaged, almost retired nurse who acci­den­tal­ly kid­naps a 9‑year-old ICE deten­tion cen­ter run­away. With such an intense top­ic, Drap­er seam­less­ly tack­les the theme through her char­ac­ters’ respect, decen­cy and kind­ness. 

 

 Drap­er uses her plat­form to shine a light on the inti­mate parts of immi­gra­tion that most don’t know or even stop to think about as well as the per­spec­tive of Black immi­grants. “Very rarely do we get to see the inti­mate side and hear the point of view of Brown and Black peo­ple on immi­gra­tion, espe­cial­ly the African-Amer­i­can perspective…so we want­ed to make sure that we lend our gaze to this issue so it becomes a very much uni­ver­sal Brown and Black issue in the con­ver­sa­tion,” said Drap­er.

 

Not only is she mak­ing immi­gra­tion a top­ic of con­ver­sa­tion, but her newest project is a com­ing of age sto­ry that any Women of Col­or can relate to. With a pletho­ra of movies por­tray­ing a young man’s com­ing of age sto­ry, Drap­er decid­ed that it was time the females to have one too. “Cof­fee Will Make You Black”, a book orig­i­nal­ly writ­ten by April Sin­clair, tells the sto­ry of a whip smart young Black girl named Ste­vie who strug­gles with her parent’s tra­di­tion­al val­ues and the com­pli­ca­tions of high school. Set in the South­side of Chica­go in the mid-60s the film fol­lows the trans­for­ma­tion of a young woman who comes to terms with her sex­u­al­i­ty and iden­ti­ty dur­ing the Civ­il Rights and Black Pow­er move­ment.

 

“It’s one of those com­ing of age sto­ries that you can see your­self in rather you’re in your 20s, 30s, 40s, 50s, 60s, 70s, 80s…because we change and we grow and we face dif­fer­ent cir­cum­stances that require us to make spe­cif­ic choic­es and that is how we grow and we learn”.

 

Gabrielle Union, Octavia Spencer and Tate Tay­lor have all joined forces to pro­duce the amaz­ing sto­ry that is “Cof­fee Will Make You Black”. With a release date of 2021, it’s def­i­nite­ly a must-see movie in the new decade. 

 

For any up and com­ing film­mak­ers, writ­ers, or direc­tors Drap­er says the first step is to green­light your­self. “Believe in your­self and give your­self the per­mis­sion to go make some­thing, big, small, long or short…but know that you can do it and you don’t have to have some­one else’s per­mis­sion to tell you, you’re a writer or direc­tor…”

 

Make sure to keep up with Drap­er on her web­site to stay up-to-date with her projects and their release dates. 

 

Blogged By: Cor­nelia Nichol­son