Audacity Division’s ’14 Days’, Multitude Films Hires; ‘Lone Wolf’ Deal — Film Briefs – Deadline

A group of filmmakers including director Kimberly Townes-Gethers, producer-writer-actor Theo Perkins and executive Kirk Moore have launched Audacity Division, a banner that aims to amplify non-dominant narratives in the BIPOC space.

Its debut project is 14 Days, a short film that follows two ex-lovers (Diarra Kilpatrick and Perkins) who find reconciliation over Zoom conversations at the height of the Covid-19 pandemic. The film reinforces the power of therapy and challenges the stigma associated with mental health with BIPOC communities. (See the trailer below.)

Kilpatrick’s credits include writing on The Last O.G. and a role on HBO’s Perry Mason, and is up next in USA Network’s Nash Bridges revival. She also earned an Emmy nomination for the ABC Digital Studios short-form series American Koko. Perkins’ acting credits include Lie to Me, NCIS and Raising the Bar.

The short is helmed by AD co-founder Townes-Gethers. Perkins and Brandon Scotland are producers and Moore (American Crime, Jack Ryan) is executive producer. Christian Epps (Selma, Lovecraft Country) is the DP. The short was shot on iPhones during the pandemic, and all the cast and crew worked remotely.

The plan is to develop 14 Days into a potential TV series. Audacity Division’s next short is Hands to the Sky, which will highlight the rising epidemic of autism in BIPOC communities in New Jersey, with an eye on developing it into a feature-length film.

“My belief is that in order to transform, change, and liberate, we can not stay still,” said Perkins, also founder and artistic director of the nonprofit Elizabeth Youth Theater Ensemble. “What we accomplished during the filming of 14 Days, the audacity that we had as artists, led to the birth of the collective.”

Here’s the 14 Days trailer:

***

Multitude Films, the LGBTQ-led independent production company dedicated to telling nonfiction stories by and about underrepresented communities, has hired veteran producer Sweta Vohra and promoted Ameena Din to VP Finance. The news comes after the company founded and led by Jessica Devaney signed with ICM Partners.

The company produced the Peabody-nominated Roll Red Roll and last year’s Oscar-shortlisted documentary short Call Center Blues, and its latest projects include Netflix’s upcoming Pray Away in partnership with Ryan Murphy and Blumhouse, and “Apart,” an installment of the HBO Max and Sesame Workshop series Through Our Eyes.

Vohra, a three-time News & Documentary Emmy nominees, is a New York City-based journalist, filmmaker, and producer who previously was a producer-director on the first season of New York Times series The Weekly on FX and Hulu. Din also consults on Netflix projects including the recent Lenox Hill and works with Fork Films, HBO, Conde Nast Entertainment, ITVS, Hoff Productions and more.

***

Gravitas Ventures has acquired North American distribution rights to Lone Wolf, an Australian thriller directed by Jonathan Ogilvie. Tilda Cobham-Hervey, Hugo Weaving, Diana Glenn, Josh McConville and Chris Bunton star in the pic, a product of the Melbourne International Film Festival Premiere Fund. IT will no get a U.S. release in theaters and on-demand on September 24.

Set in contemporary Melbourne, the plot center on Winnie (Cobham-Hervey), a young woman who runs a struggling political bookshop with her boyfriend Conrad (McConville) and takes care of her disabled brother. But Winnie’s efforts to hold everything together get thwarted when Conrad becomes entangled in an act of terrorism.

“Filmmaker Jonathan Ogilvie skillfully blends issues of surveillance and big government and how they intersect with radical political groups, resulting in a highly topical and tense film that leaves the viewer thinking about who is watching, and why,” said Megan Huggins, Gravitas’ Acquisitions Coordinator.

Huggins negotiated the deal with Denmark-based LevelK.