“Before I Disappear”
KENDRA ARIMOTO & JUSTIN MICHAEL JEFFERS
Drama, Romance
An African American PhD student and a Japanese American college dropout forge an intimate connection during a single night of soul-baring in Bronzeville/Little Tokyo, Los Angeles.
Kendra Arimoto is a writer/performer/mother on a mission to tell powerful stories thematically focused on Japanese American ancestral memory and intergenerational trauma, queer identity, and Otherness. Current projects include feature screenplays Starshine and Clay (American Zoetrope Screenplay Competition grand-prize winner; Film First Fund Finalist), Before I Disappear (PAGE Awards Fellowship Honorable Mention; Stowe Story Labs selected project), and short film Pachuke (Screencraft Film Fund shortlist). Kendra graduated from Stanford University and Smith College, and led recruiting and diversity initiatives at Google, YouTube, and Facebook.
Justin Michael Jeffers is a multimedia visual artist from Seattle currently paving his own lane as a freelance Director/DP. Justin strives to create thoughtful content that reflects the culture and community in which he grew up, and draws inspiration from 90’s street art, hip hop, and social activism. Recently, he led workshops on visual storytelling at the Northwest African American Museum as well as directed the short film Visualizing Lies which won the Art With Impact Short Film Competition in April 2019. Recent work includes collaborations with CUT Studios, Public Interest TV, Dystnct Media, ESPN, and PAC-12. (BA Digital Arts, University of Oregon.)
