The Visionary Justice StoryLab is celebrating the work of emerging Southeastern filmmakers with a screening event at the Tara Theatre on Aug. 20.
The Resisting Narratives of Erasure Short Film Showcase marks the end of the lab’s 2026 fellowship of the same name. The culminating event features eight original short films from the fellowship participants, centering intersectional and QTBIPOC (Queer, Trans, Black, Indigenous, and People of Color) stories, according to a press release.
“What we really care about is liberatory storytelling – the ways in which filmmakers have access to the tools and the resources they need to tell the powerful stories that we know they’re capable of and that they have,” said Lara Davis, impact producer with the Visionary Justice StoryLab. “We fit within that community as creatives and makers ourselves.”
The lab is rooted in the work of Davis’ wife, Shontina Vernon, who serves as executive director and head of content development. With her 2018 film “Grrrl Justice,” Vernon explored different paths to incarceration for girls and women of color. According to Davis, the lab started in Seattle around 2017 as an artist-based project rooted in performance and community engagement, aimed specifically at asking communities to explore the impact of incarceration on their lives.
“When she created that short film, ‘Grrrl Justice,’ we saw the impact of utilizing film with community,” Davis said. “Let’s create more work and find ways to stay connected and engage community.”
When Davis and Vernon moved to Atlanta in 2019, the lab became grounded in what it is today, shifting from a community-based project to an independent film entity prioritizing intersectional storytelling – meaning, the ways in which different aspects of identity like race, class, sexuality, or gender, impact people’s lives in various ways. The lab emphasizes stories from women, non-binary people, trans people, and queer people of color.
“For filmmakers, that’s really powerful in terms of applying a lens that’s really conscious of who you are and where you come from. Especially being rooted in the Southeast with the vast and particular cultures that are here,” Davis said. “How does that inform the stories that you tell? And how are those stories being sourced, resourced, and given the opportunity to be made, seen, and heard.”
The Resisting Narratives of Erasure Fellowship is one of the ways that the lab supports local filmmakers. The program runs for about 7-8 months, supporting a cohort of Southeast-based filmmakers ages 18-25 and their short films. The lab offers resources throughout the filmmaking process, launching with a two-day filmmaker lab at the start of the year, where the cohort learns from other filmmakers and participates in workshops and other learning opportunities. From there, each filmmaker is assigned a mentor, and the group also meets together for monthly workshops.
On Aug. 20, audiences will see the fruits of that labor. The films run the gamut from documentary, to comedy, to experimental, and more. A filmmaker talkback will follow the screening.
Given the current administration’s attitude toward queer people and people of color, the Visionary Justice StoryLab’s mission is more important than ever. Davis said in the face of mainstream narratives that seek to vilify marginalized people, the lab aims to do what it has always done.
“We’re committed to the kind of work that we’ve always done, and committed to doing that even more intentionally,” Davis said. “Finding ways to connect with the filmmakers who have been part of our programs who continue to make really dope work, and thinking about how we work more collectively with them to do the kinds of things that are responsive to what they’re needing, what they’re seeing, what they’re feeling.”
Here is a list of the films that will be playing on Aug. 20:
“Claybourne” (hybrid documentary): 81-year-old Mary, the daughter of a sharecropper, journeys home through memory, where peas, greens, peaches, and red clay become enduring markers of a life rooted in the land. Director Kennedy Dunning crafts a lyrical portrait of Black Southern memory, revealing how the landscapes that shape us continue to call us home.
“vampirebabygirl” (dark comedy): Written and directed by Nicole Viloria Castro, follows Cleo, who has never experienced sexual attraction, after a stranger online nearly records her mid-vampire roleplay, forcing her to confront her sexting addiction in front of a judgmental therapist.
“Rosine” (experimental): Through the stories their aunts tell of a grandmother they never knew, filmmaker Rock Jacquet reaches toward the elusive figure of Rosine, an ancestor whose absence reveals the fragile ways memory survives.
“Oasis” (documentary): “Oasis” is a documentary directed by Latoria Hicks that follows a birth center in Birmingham, Alabama as they fight against state regulations to remain open.
“ANDRENA” (drama): “ANDRENA” is a narrative drama set in the city of Dallas, about a sex worker living in her car, who gets robbed of her lotto tickets, and must go back on the streets to replace them. Through this premise, Writer/Director Robin Dylan Garcia explores themes of isolation in relation to the intersections of the latiné/trans experience in Texas.
“Intersex Gambit” (experimental documentary): When Franklin (director) meets other Intersex friends, they must confront their very cis life back home in Atlanta. Reflecting on their upbringing, religion, and love life, this Black Intersex hijabi struggles to embody their Intersex identity.
“Grown, Yet So Young” (experimental documentary): “Grown, Yet So Young” from Sha-Shonna Rogers is a powerful exploration of a woman who reclaims her identity by choosing herself over societal expectations and maintaining life’s endurance.
“Misread” (psychological romantic comedy): A film from Tevin Scott. After an awkward meet-cute in a genderless bathroom, a bipolar filmmaker discovers the actress who self-destructs in her audition is also a therapist, forcing him to choose between protecting his big break and pursuing a connection neither of them can fully explain.
