SINKING SHIP Will Premiere at TIFF 2020

Everyday, People partners Sasha Leigh Henry and Tania Thompson and co-producer Megan McCartney are pleased to announce their debut project, the razor romcom short film, Sinking Ship, will have its world premiere at the 2020 Toronto International Film Festival. Sinking Ship, which stars Jenny Brizard (The Boys, Diggstown, Handmaid's Tale) and Herschel Andoh (Code 8, Umbrella Academy, Out of Time), is directed by Henry (Bitches Love Brunch (directing), The Lockpicker (producing) and written by Thompson (The Lockpicker, Rake, Unearthed (producing)). The film is produced by Henry, Thompson, and Megan McCartney (Young Inventors, Plant Positive).

Sinking Ship is a hyper-stylized look at a changing relationship between a man and a woman hitting their early forties. While out for drinks, a couple finds themselves in an intellectual discussion of how they feel about each other. Their clinical honesty is contrasted by the restaurant's massive mural of open waters behind them that conveys the emotional truth of the state of their relationship. The ship is sinking, and it's every person for themselves.

Creating under the banner Everyday, People, director Sasha Leigh Henry and writer Tania Thompson share, "We want to make films to broaden the scope of what's possible for women on screen, especially Black women."

Henry adds, "I was compelled to direct Sinking Ship because of the nuanced way the script approached attraction and age and the opportunity to break convention by casting a Black couple at the center of it. Honest conversations are hard. They can feel surreal. Sometimes the truth is what sinks a relationship."

Thompson continues, "There is this thing that often happens to women as they hit their forties: they start to give no fs. I wanted to write a smart, funny film about the changing dynamics in an adult relationship, a film that looked at how attraction is often based on power arrangements that are unnoticeable and unproblematic until the power starts to shift."

Cinematography by Nick Haight (Baroness Von Sketch Show, Mary Goes Round, How to Buy a Baby), costumes by Jasmine Nichols (Bring Out Your Dead, An Assortment of Christmas Tales in No Particular Order), production design by Shazia Mawani (Do Something With Your Life), editing by Alexander Carson (O, Brazen Age, Numbers & Friends), and VFX by award-winner Prasanna Paul (Beyond Hell, Suicide Squad, Hellmouth)

Sinking Ship is proudly made with funding support from the Ontario Arts Council, an agency of the Government of Ontario.

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