Intersection – Meg Messmer

WEST COAST PREMIERE at Dances with films Festival June 24th @ 2:30pm

AN EMMY NOMINATED SERIES

A dark comedy about gentrification and the intersecting lives of the people in it.

Created and Executive Produced by: Meg Messmer
Co-Created by: Jennica Hill & Muretta Moss
Produced by: Meg Messmer
Co-Written and Co-produced by: Jacinte Blankenship, Karen Ceesay, Jennica Hill, Meg Messmer & Muretta Moss
Directed by:
Episode 1. Avery O Williams
Episode 2. Charlene Fisk
Episode 3. Meg Messmer
Episode 4. Charlene Fisk
Episode 5. Alycia Cooper
Episode 6. Meg Messmer

Watch the trailer

LOGLINE
&
SYNOPSIS

On the tipping point of gentrification, a close-knit Atlanta community is forced to integrate with wide-eyed opportunists, both striving for their own self-preservation on a path that’s not always black and white.

Intersection is an ensemble series in which each episode is seen through the point-of-view of a different character: A die hard protector of the culture of the neighborhood, unwilling to bend to the imminent gentrification of her community, a hard working mother who just can’t get ahead of her circumstances, a young couple priced out of their own neighborhood and looking to save for their future, a Black entrepreneur that must decide if he’ll go against his communities wishes to better himself, an anti-racist, woke ally who continues to get it wrong, and a struggling real estate agent determined to make something of herself.

This series is a mirror to society, capturing the many-sided complexities of this community’s need for safety, security, betterment and recognition. It explores the micro effects of gentrification in a city that birthed both the Civil Rights Movement and the modern day KKK movement; Old Atlanta & New Atlanta.

INTERSECTION was written in a diverse, all female writer's room and produced with a cast & crew of over 80% female and BIPOC

PRESS

WHY NOW?

Structural racism has forcefully segregated America’s communities with a tragic history of housing that continues to affect us today. The part of gentrification that forces people out of neighborhoods IS the bi-product of this bad system and it’s bleeding all over the world.

BUT gentrification is also an opportunity for INTEGRATION. Can we finally live together as one community? Black/White/Rich/Poor/Young/Old? Can we fix this broken system? WE HAVE THAT OPPORTUNITY NOW! But there is not a one-size-fits-all solution. We need to have open, hard conversations.

INTERSECTION is a series that puts those conversations on the screen. In our diverse writers room, we had hard conversations that would NEVER happen outside of it. And yet, these conversation MUST happen in order to progress as good humans. The conversations like: What makes us racist? What makes us privileged? What makes us angry? What makes us gentrifiers? Income inequality? Eviction practices? Rent increases with no caps? White Appropriation and SO many more eye openers that made us laugh, cry, get angry and also hurt while writing this show.

We want this show to spark conversations on both sides. Showing that there is no Black & White answer. Every issue has shades of gray and as we intersect everyday, we can start talking to one another and more importantly listening to each other to understand what we need, what our neighborhood needs and what our city needs. Then, we can create homes that are inclusive and diverse in culture, ethnicity and income level which Jane Jacobs (Author of Death and Life of Great American Cities) is the best kind of city.

MEET THE TEAM

Jacinte Blankenship

Writer – Co-Producer – Actor

Jacinte Blankenship is an actress, writer and producer committed to the expansion of storytelling inclusive of people of color. She is a graduate of Clark Atlanta University in the the historic Atlanta University Center, and has been a part Atlanta’s film and television community well over a decade. Her first project as a producer was Hidden in Plain View, a short film about the human trafficking epidemic in Atlanta, GA. While attending the Cannes Film Festival, she co-wrote and performed in three short films in collaboration with the internship program Creative Minds in Cannes. Jacinte has appeared in several television and film productions, including television shows, Mr. Mercedes, and NCIS: New Orleans and films Just Mercy, Get On Up, and The Friend. Instagram: @jacinteb

Karen Ceesay

Writer – Co-Producer – Actor

Karen Ceesay is an actor/writer/producer living and working in Atlanta, Georgia. Karen moved from her hometown of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania to Atlanta, Georgia to study theater at Spelman College where she earned a B.A. in Theatre Arts. After graduation, she became a regular on Atlanta’s improv scene. This led to a mentorship with veteran television writer/producer Sy Rosen, where Karen began her writing career.

As an actor, Karen has been recurring on The Walking Dead, Stranger Things, Greenleaf, among others. As a writer, Karen and her partner currently have a TV series in development at Freeform.

An active participant in the ATL Film & TV community, Karen is a member of GA Production Partners, SAG AFTRA and served on the Board of Directors for Women in Film and TV Atlanta.

Jennica Hill

Creator – Writer – Co-Producer – Actor

Jennica Hill is an actress, improviser, and writer focused on connecting the world through empathy and storytelling. She is a graduate of the University of Southern California. Shortly after moving to Atlanta, Jennica was cast in Tamlin Hall’s film HOLDEN ON, which has won multiple festival awards and become a nonprofit spreading awareness about mental health and teen suicide. This further ignited her goal to fire on all cylinders and tell stories that help close the gaps between people’s perceived differences and connect them through their universal humanity.

http://www.jennicahill.com/ Instagram: @jennicahill

Muretta Moss

Creator – Writer – Co-Producer – Actor

Muretta Moss is an actress, comedian, and writer from Atlanta, Georgia. She has worked with Julie Taymor in The Glorias, starred in A Loud House Christmas, and was featured opposite Colin Firth in The Staircase. She is a graduate of Second City, iO West, Upright Citizens Brigade… oh, and from Georgia Tech and Georgia State University. She can be seen performing weekly at the Village Theatre in Atlanta, in their Mainstage Ensemble, The Improvised Vagina Monologues, and Marcia Marcia Marcia.

Muretta LOVES country music and cats. @MurettaMoss

Meg Messmer

Showrunner – Creator – Director of EP 3 & 6 – Writer – Actor

Meg Messmer is a multi-hyphenate producer-creator-director and actor. She creates, develops, and produces television & film with a heavy focus on female stories and social change. She has worked in the entertainment industry for over 15 years, producing a range of independent microbudget features, TV formats and multi-million-dollar, international films starring A-list talent. Meg is drawn to projects that raise awareness. Her Emmy©-nominated series, INTERSECTION, which she co-created, co-directed and starred in, is a dark comedy exploring challenging topics like racism, classism, and gentrification in Atlanta. It was written in a diverse, all-female writer’s room and was produced with a cast and crew that was over 80% female and BIPOC. She hired an all-female crew to produce the short film LAMB, which highlighted the #MeToo movement, and played in festivals nationwide. She co-produced the internationally distributed film, IMPRISONED, starring Laurence Fishburne. During which, she partnered with a local Puerto Rican program, offering workshops and roles to inmates as a form of anti-recidivism. Meg began her career as an actress, discovered at Jeff Daniels’ Purple Rose Theatre. In NYC, she worked in development at the world-renowned Cherrylane Theatre. She moved to Los Angeles where she cut her teeth at Mandeville Films, FremantleMedia and the elite, talent management company, Untitled Entertainment, before going out on her own. She attended UCLA’s Professional Producer’s Program, NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts and graduated Valedictorian of her alma mater, University of Detroit Mercy.

In 2022, Meg was chosen as part of the International Co-Production Accelerator Program with her original series, THE NIGHT WITCHES, exploring international co-productions in television. Most recently, she produced the action-packed SWITCH & BAIT with a female-led directing and producing team. She currently is based in Sweden. Find more about her and her work here: www.megmessmer.com @megmessmer

CHARLIE FISK

Director of Episode 2 "Generational Wealth"
& Episode 4: "Ally"

Charlie Fisk Produced/Directed her first feature film, The Founders (2017) which won Best Documentary and the Audience Award Feature at its premiere in Atlanta. She was Co-Producer/Editor on Margaret Mitchell: American Rebel for American Master’s on PBS and Man Made (2018), the feature documentary about transgender bodybuilders.

Her narrative debut as Writer/Director, Limerence (2019), won Best Short at RIFF. Her second short Rideshare is currently hitting the festival circuit. She is in post-production on her third short film, and one of her feature film scripts is currently in the Southern Producers Lab. Her IMDB credits include cinematography for FX, PBS, ESPN, TLC, Discovery Channel, Travel Channel, Food Network and OWN.

https://www.amightycompany.com/

AVERY O Williams

Director of Episode 1: "THE G WORD"

Avery O Williams is a screenwriter-director and MFA grad from New York University, Tisch School of the Arts. He co-directed the feature film Misguided Behavior with Carl Payne, and the TVOne feature film Skinned with LisaRaye McCoy. Avery also co-wrote the feature Directing Eddie (starring Valerie Perrine, Jade Barrymore) voted Best Comedy 2001 New York International Independent Film & Video Festival. He wrote the short film The Willie Witch Projects (distr. by Trimark Pictures in the compilation The Bogus Witch Project) and wrote and co-produced the award-winning short film, Notes In A Minor Key (Keith David, Harry Lennix) for Hollywood Pictures. Recently, he has directed other short films including Two Roads, ReConnect, and Fight For Hope, (1st place in Lights, Camera, Georgia Film competition).

For the national stage, Avery wrote and produced A Mother’s Prayer and What A Woman Will Do For Love starring Raven Symone, Ann Nesby, Howard Hewett and Lashun Pace. Avery also produced Tom Coles’ Medal of Honor Rag, starring Heavy D, directed by Delroy Lindo and executive produced by Will Smith.

He is one of the founding faculty members of the Cinema, Television and Emerging Media Studies program at Morehouse College in Altanta, GA where he currently serves as Assistant Professor.

Alycia cooper

Director of Episode 5: "GENERATIONAL WEALTH"

Alycia Cooper is a multi-hyphenate actor/comic/writer/producer & director. Alycia began on Magic Johnson’s Late Night Talk Show, The Magic Hour and the UPN Sitcom, The Parkers. From there, she started performing stand-up comedy at night and producing a series of reality TV shows by day. She worked on The Dr. Phil Show and from there, joined the DGA. She wrote and directed the psychological drama short, Trade, which garnered multiple awards, and is currently available on UrbanFlix TV Network. She is currently writing the feature film.

Her second short, Just Us is winning multiple awards at festivals and streaming on several platforms as well as her third film, in which she wrote/directed/produced and starred in, entitled, Fat Stripper,

Alycia’s accolades include being featured in Essence Magazine in 2004 as “One to Watch.” She has released six stand-up comedy albums to date. She has her own Pandora station and can be heard on Kevin Hart’s satellite channel as well as on Sirius Satellite’s Laugh USA Channel 98. She has toured over 20 countries overseas to perform for our men and women in uniform.

IMDB: https://www.imdb.com/name/nm1275196/

A
Letter
from the Showrunner

Hey! My name is Meg Messmer and I am one of the writers and creators of Intersection.

This is a personal story for me that started when I was living in Detroit and I was the only white person in my building. I didn’t think too much of it then, but after a few years, I moved to New York City and I noticed how every affordable neighborhood I chose to live in (Harlem, Clinton Hill and Bedstuy in Brooklyn) would slowly, steadily change.

Yup, for my entire adult life, I’ve been a gentrifier. I’m white. And it seemed like once I moved to a neighborhood, more and more white people came too, along with some other changes: a new juicery on the corner and goat cheese in the grocery store.

When I moved to Los Angeles, I decided to buy my first house. I bought a house with the intention of flipping it in order to build a savings for my future. I’m an artist with no 401K plan. So I wanted to be smart. My retirement plan was going to be in real estate.

It wasn’t until after I sold that house and then couldn’t afford to buy a new one in that same neighborhood, that I started wondering what this buzzword “gentrification” really meant. And more importantly, how I might be a part of it. That was 2012.

Now, that L.A. neighborhood is almost entirely white and the homes sell for well over $1 mil. Detroit is the coolest new place for artists and NYC…well, we all know that NYC is untouchable for anyone except the rich or their privileged children.

In 2016 I moved to Atlanta because, guess what, I was priced out of my own city. I bought a house in a historically Black neighborhood. Let me tell you – the dynamic here in “The South” is different than anywhere else I had lived. Atlanta is the birthplace of the civil rights and also the birthplace of the KKK. The racial tension here is more palpable than anywhere else I’ve ever lived. Finally I was face to face with the long journey our country has to take for racial equality. I started researching and writing.

This series, is my little piece of owning my own wake up call.

But what I’ve also learned about gentrification is that it’s not just a black and white or right and wrong issue. There are SOOO many shades of gray. This series intends to capture all of those and hopefully we can start conversations around them.

Intersection came after 3 years of researching with my co-creators and finding the right team of writers because we knew we could not write this series without the voices of everyone. All of the women (yes, all the writers were women) in the writers room are experiencing gentrification first hand. These stories are real. Most of the situations are based in truth. We can’t wait for you to see it and start the conversation with us.

-Meg