A Montgomery County, Maryland, native recently premiered her new movie that narrates the story of a young Black girl in the 1950s at the famed Sundance Film Festival.
Out of thousands of submissions, Natalie Jasmine Harris’ film Grace was chosen for the 2024 Sundance Film Festival, which is the largest independent film festival in the country.
“Sundance was definitely on my bucket list,” Harris said. “Having that true cinema experience was really incredible.”
Harris grew up in Silver Spring, Maryland, moved to Virginia and started college in D.C.
“I really did do the full D.C., Maryland, Virginia experience,” Harris said. “It informs a lot of my work.”
Her short filmfollows a young girl named Grace as she prepares to get baptized.
“She starts to second guess the feelings she has for her best friend Louise that are beginning to feel romantic. It’s a very quiet film,” she said. “It’s also inspired by Black Southern gothic films that really paved the way for me.”
Harris said Grace captures Black girlhood through a queer lens.
“I didn’t often see myself on screen growing up,” she says. “When I decided that I wanted to be a narrative filmmaker, I knew that I really wanted to help change some of the things that I noticed about storytelling and representation.”
Her family flew from Maryland to Utah to help her celebrate the accomplishment.
“I had never heard that much applause for myself. It was really amazing,” she says. “It was really well-received. People came up to me and told me how they loved the film and thought it was really a new perspective.”
Some of the best films, she said, are both specific and universal.
“At the end of the day, you’re talking about emotions that we all have,” she said. “We all experience, grief,or love or not fitting in.”
Harris hopes to show “Grace” at more festivals and land a distribution deal.
In 2022, HBO acquired her short film “Pure,” which is available to stream on Max. She’s now working on making “Pure” into a feature-length film, which she’d like to shoot in Maryland.
Harris encourages aspiring filmmakers to be brave and share your work with other people.
“Don’t be afraid to be vulnerable in your storytelling and to tell stories that you can relate to,” she said. “I think that when you’re able to have that personal connection, people really resonate with the stories that you’re telling and that’s what captures people’s heartstrings.”
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