How Quieted Became a Festival Finalist & My Screenwriting

​What started as a late-night writing sprint turned into a surrealist script about silence, bias, and survival in higher education—and now it's making noise in film circles.

Talking about delayed gratification is like telling a horror story—the suspense is real. But this story? This one has momentum.
At the end of 2023, I made myself a promise: finish a feature film script by December 31st. Done. But in the process, I felt the urge to experiment. To write something that didn’t answer to the academy or follow film school formulas. I wrote Quieted in a few hours.
Turns out, that experiment hit a nerve.

The Premise​

Quieted is a surrealist short film that explores what it feels like to be Black, brilliant, and barely tolerated in academic spaces.
It follows Dr. Zora Johnson as she navigates microaggressions, imposter syndrome, and institutional erasure—with moments that bend time and perception. Inspired by real conversations, field notes, and years of cultural observation, this script wasn’t just a creative exercise—it was a spiritual purge.

Recognition & Festivals

Despite being drafted quickly, Quieted found its audience: 🏆 Winner – Best Drama Script – Hollywood Just4Shorts (2025)
🥈 Finalist – Urban Mediamakers Film Festival (2024)
🎬 Nominee – Best Script – Cannes Independent Shorts (2024)
⭐ Official Selection – ETHOS Film Awards (2024)
It’s proof that stories about power, bias, and resilience in the ivory tower resonate far beyond the quad.

Behind the Script

My films often blur the line between documentary and fiction. With Quieted, I chose magical realism to make the invisible visible—to show how silencing works, how memory distorts, how truth gets trapped.
This is not just a concept piece. It’s a reflection of lived experience—mine, and many others’. It’s the weight of trying to belong in spaces never built for us.

​The version that won awards? It’s not even the final one. Because growth is iterative. So is healing. And Quieted still has more to say.