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Greenville screenwriter-director Destiny Macon’s short film “Talk Black” is streaming on HBO Max.
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Macon studied civil engineering at the University of South Carolina and turned her job into “Talk Black.”
It’s a dark comedy about a timid engineer whose alter ego pushes her to confront the misogynous men she works with after they try to take over her projects.
The film was one of five finalists in HBO’s Short Film Award.
Now she’s moving on to another, bigger project — a feature film called “Burn House.”
It’s about a canceled talk show host going to her family’s lake house and finding a supernatural presence that forces her to confront her past or risk burning alive inside.
She has completed the first act of “Burn House” and later this month will launch a Seed & Spark crowdfunding campaign to raise the money to finish production.
She financed the first act through her company, Hush Girl Productions.
“Burn House” was filmed in an 1800s-era cabin in Hollywood, South Carolina.
“I can honestly say it was one of the absolute most beautiful experiences of my entire life,” she said. “Ironically, all the greatness went down in Hollywood, SC.”
She said she pushed through self-doubt and shot the first act in eight days.
She said her “incredible team and a crazy amount of divine favor” allowed them to make magic.
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“God stood beside me and guided me the whole time,” she said. “My favorite part of the shoot was the peaceful, kind, collaborative energy of everyone on set. Even though most of us had just met for the first time.”
Many involved in the film were students or graduates of Trident Technical College and others were local filmmakers based in Upstate.
It stars Natacha Ellie, Lirelle Gardere and Mia Reese.
“Talk Black” received an Indie Grant through the South Carolina Film Commission and Trident Technical College.
“In 2020, when I was writing the script for Talk Black, I had just watched the hilarious and surprising short film Hair Wolf on HBO Max,” Macon said when the short film came out. “One of my biggest dreams was to have the same trajectory in my own career by receiving an Indie Grant, screening at the American Black Film Festival in Miami, and then having my own short film broadcast on HBO Max. Two years later I’m astonished to see that my exact dream is about to happen in real life!”
“Talk Black” was filmed in Greenville and stars Mystie Smith, Sh’kia Augustin, Dan Thorp, John W. Wright, and Don Henderson Baker.
Macon co-founded South Carolina’s Upstate Filmmaker’s Network and has a screenwriting certificate from the University of California, Los Angeles.
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