10/22/2026
“Real tea: Doing well in public, drained in private. Lit and struggling.” 🎬✨
When filmmaker Brandon R. Nicholas took his documentary short Miss Honey: The Catsuit onto the festival circuit, the love was immediate. Packed rooms of Black and Caribbean folks singing Moi Renée’s iconic dance track word for word, festival laurels, and looks served—even after snapping a heel on the way into BAM.
The industry sells a seductive myth: that festival laurels naturally convert into studio deals, agents, and executive producers. But Brandon gets brutally honest about what happens behind the photo ops—maxing out bank accounts, passing around the same $20 grant pool, and navigating an industry where diversity promises quietly get dialed back to default settings that were never built for Black, trans, and q***r creators of color.
Yet through every rejection and shoestring budget, one truth held firm: when institutional infrastructure fails, community becomes the load-bearing wall.
From turning thin air into cinema to finding healing, fellowship, and power on the indie circuit, dive into Brandon’s raw, funny, and deeply necessary reflection on what it really takes to keep Black q***r stories alive.
🔗 Head to the link in our bio to read Brandon R. Nicholas’ full op-ed.
