Blackberries is a short film by Rani Jessica Jain and Anna-Lauren Tufekci.

It was born out of our decades of friendship amidst a myriad of life experiences and is fueled by our desire to challenge a rise in individualism that seems to divide the world further and further everyday. Blackberries centers the humanity of immigrant women across different cultures, coming together to support and nurture each other.

THE STORY

A mother, immersed in a euphoric day with her young daughter, is disrupted by an unsolicited guest. The guest barrels into the mother’s home and insists on working in the kitchen. Tension between the two women mounts, a pace with a boiling pressure cooker, then ruptures, revealing an awful and fundamental fissure in the mother’s sense of reality. The mother’s day is a mirage, built in isolation over the grief of losing her only child. The guest knows this. And, as a best friend, she also knew better than to knock.

THE TEAM

Director/Co-Writer, Anna-Lauren Tufekci: At Netflix she served as a lead creative producer collaborating directly with Co-CEOs Ted Sarandos and Reed Hastings alongside other c-suite members. Her work has been recognized by SXSW, Tribeca Shortlist, Annie Awards (ASIFA-Hollywood), IndyWIRE, the NYTimes and distributed by The Orchard, Amazon Prime, Vudu, and DirectTV (global.) Her short, “Benim,” inked a distribution deal prior to production and starred Babak Tafti (Succession, Super Pumped, Billions) and Auden Thornton (Black Mirror, This is Us.) Yale School of Management Women's Leadership Certificate Program ('21).

Co-Writer/Actor, Rani Jessica Jain: She has worked at Lincoln Center, The Alley Theatre, The Denver Center, Olney Theatre, and TheatreWorks Hartford. As a filmmaker, she was in the cult classic Pitch Perfect and worked with many esteemed directors, including Steven Soderbergh and Ritesh Batra. As a writer, many big producers and networks have praised her voice, which quickly landed her literary representation at Citizen Skull Management.

Executive Producers, Pallavi & Keertana Sastry: Their latest feature, “Land of Gold,” won the AT&T Untold Stories program then premiered at Tribeca Film Festival. As an actor, Pallavi’s credits include “The Walking Dead: Dead City,” Master of None” (Netflix,) Quantico (ABC,) “Blue Bloods” (CBS,) and “Land of Gold.” Keertana is a seasoned casting professional credited with “Monster: Season 2” (Netflix,) “Little America) (AppleTV,) “Single Drunk Female” (Freeform,) “Mean Girls” (Paramount,) “The Hate U Give” (20^th/Fox,) and “Land of Gold.” Other productions under their company, Adda G Productions, include the documentary “Invisible” (Amazon Prime.) They also serve as Co-Directors of Programming at the renowned International South Asian Film Festival of Canada.

Producer, Kristin Krall: Established producer of award-winning content with the support of companies like WME, Irony Point, Jax Media, Netflix and Amazon. Her television and feature film credits include: HBO’s “The Gilded Age,” Showtime’s Golden Globe winning series, “The Loudest Voice” (Russell Crowe), Tina Fey’s “Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt,” and Marvel series “The Punisher.” She’s currently on the 4th season fo Dick Wolf’s FBI: Most Wanted and a scripted feature film with Dustin Hoffman.