Production Status

High level chronology of the production schedule of this film is below.

• May 2021:  Debra Williams wrote Church Hat, a children’s book with an LGBTQ+ theme, as a tribute to her mother and maternal grandmothers’ example of showing safety, love and acceptance to everyone, despite their traditional, conservative, Jamaican roots. It was published in November 2021. 

• September 2022: Debra and Eric Cotten, while at the Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF) discussed turning the book into an animated short film. Eric founded the Baltimore Filmmakers Collective in Baltimore, Maryland, and has experience writing scripts, and producing short and feature length films.

• October of 2022: Eric signed on to be the producer on the film adaptation of the book, with Debra Williams as Executive Producer. They estimated that the total running time would be under 7 minutes. They outlined a production schedule and a working budget. 

• November 2022 – April 2023: Eric and Debra researched animation talent and interview possible agencies and independent contractors to work on the project. 

• December 2022 – August 2023: Through a GoFundMe campaign and private donations to help to make this film, $27,000 is raised towards the first phase of production. All other costs to date have been provided by the Executive Producer. 

• May 2023: Miceal O’Donnell joined the creative team as the film’s Director and Animator

• July 14 to November 9, 2023: While the American actors' union SAG-AFTRA (Screen Actors Guild – American Federation of Television and Radio Artists) was on strike, the book was adapted into a script. Eric and Debra investigated possible talent to do the voiceovers. Miceal started working on the creative process to deliver a stop-motion animation short film.

• September 2023: Eric, Miceal and Debra met in Toronto during TIFF 2023 to interact with potential collaborators and continue to learn more about industry opportunities for the project.

• October 2023 -  January 2024: Eric and Debra worked with SAG AFTRA on appropriate forms to contract with voiceover talent.

• October 2023 - Eric Cotten agreed with Debra Williams to submit the Church Hat project to the Prestigious Saul Zaentz Innovation Fund. The fund was established to encourage human-based storytelling and boundary-pushing, to help identify and solve production challenges, and to foster community and collaboration. In April of 2024 the project received the Saul Zaentz Development and Production Award of $15.000 designated for voice over talent.

• December 2023 – February 2024: Church Hat the Film Inc. connected with SBV Talent Agency, sending a proposal for Sheryl Lee Ralph to be the voice of the mother for the film to negotiate a contract.

• December 2023 – ongoing: The project has applied for numerous Canadian grants to support funding of the film. Currently the project is being assessed by the Jamaica Screen Development Initiative review panel for a production grant. 

• March 2024 – Sheryl Lee Ralph contracted to do voiceover work for the film

• April 2024: Miceal, Eric and Debra interviewed potential talent to be the voice of the young boy. Maximus Turner accepted our offer to do this work.

• April 27th – 30th 2024: The production team traveled to Los Angeles, California to spend two days at Margarita Mix Studios for Ms. Ralph and Maximus to complete the voiceover recordings.

• April 30th to May 6th 2024: The production team attended the Maryland Film Festival, where the project won $1000 in a pitch contest.