MONARCH
Monarch, a novel and short film Written by Brianna Seamster, tells the powerful, little-known story of the First Black Queen of England, Philippa of Hainault. The story depicts her ascension from black sheep and trails her pursuit to become a noble Countess, but instead rising to be crowned Queen.
"Monarch pushes the theme of being true to yourself, which can often be difficult in our world. We want to take the audience on the journey of Philippa being the outcast and feeling insecure to embracing herself and rising to ultimately the highest height of the monarchy. A triumph that needs to be told for Black peoples." said Seamster.
We are now accepting pre-sales for a pay-what-you-can, early PDF version of Monarch.
MESSAGE FROM THE CREATOR
Monarch follows Philippa of Hainault, the future Countess of Hainault, who speaks her mind with no hesitation. With her dark complexion, she does not fit in the “normal” category of what a
princess should be in 1325 Europe. Philippa must not forget her journey and the journey of those before her as the stakes rise. There is profound honor in paving the way for generations
to succeed. For Black families, globally we struggle with the presence of generational wealth. The thought of “Symbolic Annihilation” as Michael Morgan, former professor of the University of Massachusetts at Amherst put it in HuffPost, is “[w]hen you don’t see people like yourself, the message is: You’re invisible. The message is: You don’t count. And the message is: ‘There’s something wrong with me,’”.
We want to tell our Black and Indigenous community, “We see you, and you are royalty”!
This next step into this next year is about growth and diving head first into the gifts that God has given me... FULLY and without a filter.
Thank you for your support.
Love,
Brianna Seamster (Director/Writer)
ABOUT MONARCH
Monarch, a short film produced by Brianna Seamster, tells the powerful, little-known story of the First Black Queen of England, Philippa of Hainault. The story depicts her ascension from black sheep and trails her pursuit to become a noble Countess, but instead rising to be crowned Queen.
"Our film pushes the theme of being true to yourself, which can often be difficult in our world. We want to take the audience on the journey of Philippa being the outcast to embracing herself and rising to ultimately the highest height of the monarchy. A triumph that needs to be told for Black peoples." said Seamster.
With nearly a decade of experience in television and film production, Seamster, Director of Photography Fletch Power, VFX Producer Bill Hudson, and Co-Producer Tiffany Beacham pull inspiration from their professional training and their Black, Caribbean, and Native American roots. Their accolades include serving as writers, photographers, cinematographers, producers, and assistants for Netflix, The CW, AMC, FX Networks, and ABC projects.
Despite Monarch's script making it to the second round of the Orchard Project and Sundance Film Labs, Seamster continued to get the same feedback: fantastic story, but the budget is too big. So, the team is taking matters into its own hands to get this story told by first producing the short film and then the feature film.
"For far too long, important Black stories haven't seen the light of day because no one believed there was an audience for the content, or the funding opportunities weren't afforded to people of color. We believe in the strength and inspiration this story will bring, so it's important to us to make it come to life however possible," Seamster explained.
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