Amman Abbasi Debut Film ‘Dayveon,’ Fostered By Independent Film Vets, Completes Production – Exclusive
Rough House Pictures (“Eastbound and Down,” “Vice Principals,” “Manglehorn,” “Lawless”) has announced the completion of production on “Dayveon,”Amman Abbasi’s debut feature. The picture is a collaboration between Rough House, James Schamus‘ (“Indignation”) production company Symbolic Exchange and producer Lisa Muskat’s (“Joe,” “Compliance”) Muskat Filmed Properties.
“Dayveon” follows a 13-year-old boy (Devin Blackmon) who comes to terms with his older brother’s death. Torn between a caretaker who also happens to be his loving sister (Chasity Moore) and the sense of camaraderie offered by his local gang, Dayveon is forced to make harsh decisions that threaten to rob him of his innocence.
READ MORE: James Schamus – ‘Indignation’ Interview (TOH)
Abbasi is a 27-year-old Pakistani-American writer, director, editor and composer. He was named one of Filmmaker Magazine’s 25 New Faces of Independent Film in 2016.
“I went about making ‘Dayveon’ in a fairly non-traditional way,” said Abbasi. “I started this process like a documentary by learning and talking to actual gang members and work-shopping the story with them to find out why kids join gangs and learn firsthand from their stories. A lot of these stories helped inspire this movie. Hopefully this film paints an honest picture of what it is like to be brought into a gang as a kid.”
“’Dayveon’ is a cinematic portrait of a kid who joins a gang in rural Arkansas,” said executive producer David Gordon Green. “His journey within the film feels authentic — as if I were a fly on the wall watching him trying to discover how to get over heartbreak, understand violence and become a man.”
READ MORE: David Gordon Green Explains Why You’ll Never Figure Him Out
“My colleagues at Symbolic Exchange and our partners at Meridian are thrilled to be part of the team helping introduce Amman Abbasi’s powerful and poetic voice to filmgoers,” said exec producer Schamus. “Amman is a visionary, whose deep humanity informs every frame of this beautiful debut film.”
With a heft of powerful independent film producers behind it, look for “Dayveon” to potentially play the 2017 festival circuit.
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