Storytelling and Animation at Sundance

At Sundance this year, I had the opportunity to discuss my journey from an early viral blog to my upcoming animated short film, Strange Little Fruit. It was very well received, and I am more excited than ever to see it through.

What started as a deep dive into an animated editorial food in America—highlighting everything from black medicine to water access to rural food delivery—has transformed into a bold, visually stunning animated project that is ready to be shared with the world.

This journey began with a 2021 collaboration with Michelle Moore, where we developed an image that captured the essence of Black food history for the serie's first editorial. That single image evolved into a small 3D scene in 2022, but in 2024, I decided to take it further, bringing Strange Little Fruit to life as an animated short film.

The final product is a fusion of cutting-edge technology and storytelling, created using Autodesk MAYA, Unreal Engine, Adobe Suite, and Frame.io. To streamline production, we leveraged AI-generated storyboarding based on our meticulously written script, ensuring our vision was both efficiently crafted and visually compelling.

Now, as we prepare to premiere the preview and trailer, I’m excited to share this project with audiences who care about history, innovation, and the future of food storytelling. This film is not just an artistic endeavor; it’s a bridge between the past and the future, blending history with speculative storytelling in a way that honors those who came before us while imagining what comes next.

Stay tuned for more details on where and when you can watch the first glimpse of Strange Little Fruit. I can’t wait to share this journey with you all.

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