What are you willing to fight for?

THE BEARD

Tyler, his wife Adiva, and their friend Jess throw a dinner party for Tyler’s boss Wayne to secure an upcoming promotion, though not all is as it seems. Wayne attends with his wife, Patsy, with an ulterior motive: to determine if the couple is living the proper, conservative life as demanded by society. Additionally, news of people being forcefully arrested for not following the new conservative normal blanket the party with an impending sense of doom. Just as Tyler and Adiva are about to be in the clear, the outside world bursts in and one of them is taken against their will for the crime of showing queer love in public. Everyone’s world is thrown into chaos. Each of them are forced to look at themselves, their lives, and each other and ask the question: What are you willing to fight for?

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Meet the Team

Director: Kelsey Fordham

Kelsey Fordham is an award-winning director and producer committed to telling powerful and daring stories with a soul. Her art is influenced by over 6 years of work for a documentary-based NGO that provided protection resources to some of the most vulnerable communities in central Africa. There, she witnessed film at its best, and fell head over heels for the power of storytelling. She has produced dozens of projects including Harry Shum Jr's 2021 proof of concept, Milo, and the 2019 HBO APA Visionaries winning film, Halwa. Her first short, Entitled – a story about a woman thrust into the spotlight when the details of her sexual assault go viral – premiered at the Oscar qualifying HollyShorts Film Festival and won Best Narrative Drama at DC International Shorts. Kelsey's films have screened at HollyShorts, Outfest, Austin Film Festival, San Diego International Film Festival, and have aired and streamed on HBO, Disney+ Hotstar, and CBS.

Man in a leather jacket leaning against a chain-link fence, looking at the camera.

Writer/Producer: Nate Raven

Nate Raven is an award winning writer whose scripts have won many finalist and semifinalist awards in major competitions. His Pilot, My Yours His, is a three time Best Short Screenplay winner at festivals including New York Film Awards and Los Angeles Film Awards, and was an Official Selection of the HollyShorts Screenplay Contest in 2021. Currently, Nate runs a weekly writing room, through an indie streaming platform IFT Network, geared towards reading a writer's script out loud and offering feedback intended to elevate the work. Nate also is a judge for the Austin Film Festival's Script Competition and a programmer for Slamdance. Along with writing and acting in his own films and series, he wrote and co-directed an Off Broadway immersive play: The Cooping Theory in 2019.

Cinematographer: Ludovica Isidori

Ludovica Isidori holds an MFA in Cinematography from AFI, where she received the Olivadotti Scholarship for craftsmanship excellence. Test Pattern, the independent feature Ludovica lensed for director Shatara Michelle Ford, has received global appraise from magazines such as IndieWire, The Hollywood Reporter, and The New York Times. Ludovica’s lighting work is emphasized in The Rolling Stone as “something portentous and terrifying, a harbinger of the inevitable.” Since 2021, Ludovica has shot High Heel, a TV Pilot directed by Rochée Jeffrey, The Harbinger, a psychological horror directed by Andy Mitton, and Sanctuary, a feature film starring Margaret Qualley and Christopher Abbot. Her work has screened at Berlinale, Tribeca, SXSW, Diversity in Cannes and has streamed on HBO, Hulu, and Lifetime.

The Cast