D’Angelo “D’Lo” Louis is a name who has been behind several of your favorite films. But now he’s working on becoming your next favorite director with his upcoming film Announcements.
According to its Seed & Spark page, Announcements follows a young teen in California’s Bay Area who becomes affected by youth violence. As the description states:
ANNOUNCEMENTS tells the poignant story of a young Bay Area transplant navigating the harsh realities of a Los Angeles high school, where the morning announcements often serve as tragic farewells due to gang violence. This narrative, deeply rooted in D’Lo’s personal experience and inspired by true events, is not just a film, it’s a call to action, a reflection on the devastating impact of violence on our youth, and a plea for change.
Announcements is a personal story for Louis, who is a creative executive at Ryan Coogler’s Proximity Media. Like Announcements‘ main character, Louis’ story also includes strife and trials, including “financial hardships that led to a decade-long imprisonment” in California, according to his bio on Seed & Spark. However, Louis still managed to discover his love for writing and creating, and after being encouraged by a friend, started to write more. After being released in 2018, Louis began working with Coogler on films such as Black Panther: Wakanda Forever, Space Jam: A New Legacy, Judas and the Black Messiah, and Creed III, the latter of which he’s credited as an associate producer.
Louis told Blavity’s Shadow and Act that the birth of Announcements came while he was finishing a short film called Shoebox, The short film also dealt with some of the same themes of Announcements, such as Black teen having to choose between a life of crime or a life of possibility. Some of the challenges he had working on the short film helped him realize the power of his own voice.
“The motivation for Shoebox is a two-hander. While working as a cultural consultant on another project, I realized the higher-ups weren’t listening to my suggestions. That day, I decided that if I wanted to do things my way, I needed to write my own material,” he said. “I began fleshing out the idea that same night”
“There’s a scene in Shoebox involving mirrors, which actually became the starting point. I reverse-engineered the story from there. I wanted to explore how choices shape outcomes, and drawing from personal experiences, I crafted a narrative that pushes a character to the brink of self-destruction,” he continued. “I made it a point to depict the dual realities of our decisions—their impact on both our future and the people around us.”
Announcements, he said was inspired by true events. “In high school, they would announce which of my classmates had lost their lives over the weekend. It was an extremely traumatizing experience,” he said. “Now, as a filmmaker, I wanted to explore that concept but had to find a tasteful and non-exploitative way to tell the story. I began crafting a narrative where, amid a backdrop of forbidden love, death gradually closes in on one of the characters responsible for making the announcements. Once I cracked that story, I was off to the races.”
Announcements is nearly off to the races itself in terms of raising the amount it needs for production. The film and its team–including producers Jamari Perry and David Hunter, Jr., and executive producers Michelle A. Daniel and Yhá Mourhia Wright–have raised over half of the production costs needed with 23 hours left to go as of writing this article. You can support Announcements and help the team reach its goal at Seed & Spark.
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