With poise and passion, senior film student Antreise Lacey took the initiative to make a change in her life. As a mandatory part of finishing her bachelor’s degree at Hofstra University, Lacey was tasked with completing a “senior capstone project” in the form of producing her own film from the ground up. Challenged by her busy schedule and lack of project funding from her university, Lacey paved the way for her story to be told and for the voice of other people of color to be heard.
On any given day, Lacey is balancing her responsibilities as a resident assistant, anchor of HEAT Network’s (Hofstra’s student-run television network) popular show “Director’s Cut”, president of the school’s Black Student Union and being a full-time student. As a result, organization is her best friend. Before Lacey began finding a way to fund her film, she first had to develop an idea.
After some contemplation, she decided to pull from her own life and write a script based on a very tragic experience. Around one year ago, Lacey’s best friend committed suicide. The grief and guilt hurt her to the core. So, as a way to help herself heal and pay tribute to her lost friend, Lacey came up with “The Color in Grief.” This story centers around a young woman who goes through a series of therapy sessions after her closest friend takes her own life. Even though these characters are based on Lacey and her lost friend, they still maintain their own individuality and significance.
To help bring her vision to the forefront of reality, Lacey asked her friends, family, professors, and outer community to rally around her. With no other way to fund her project, Lacey took the initiative to develop an online fundraising campaign to raise the money she needed to produce “The Color in Grief.” During the course of just a few weeks by advertising the campaign on social media outlets like Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram, Lacey was able to accumulate over $2,000 to contribute to her capstone project.
When it came to actually shooting her film over the course of a weekend, Lacey took it as an opportunity to hire other people of color, specifically Black women. Back when Lacey was a first-year college student, a group of Black female filmmakers mentored her. During the process of creating “The Color in Grief,” Lacey enlisted the same group of trustworthy women to carefully help craft this project that is so personal to her. Now in the stage of post-production, Lacey hopes for the project to be completed for viewing in the near future.
As someone who considers herself to be inspired, as well as someone who inspires, Lacey advises other people of color who are reluctant to take a chance on themselves to simply “do it!” Lacey goes on to mention that “nobody is going to take a chance on you if you don’t take a chance on yourself first.” She firmly believes that every person has a story that can be told, so she encourages other people of color, and others in general, to do so.
To catch announcements on how you can view “The Color in Grief” or learn more about Antreise Lacey, visit her social media accounts:
LinkedIn: Antreise Lacey
Instagram: @_luv.lacey
Facebook: Tricey Lacey
