LOGLINE An aspiring artist combats her mental illness while navigating New York City's illegal underground advertising business straddling the line between Fine Art, graffiti, genius, and madness.
CREATOR STATEMENT Poster Boy shines light on mental illness, the shadowy underbelly of New York City's illegal advertising scene, brilliant street artists, ruthless hustlers, and how corrupt corporations intersect with all of this. It's an idea that is ripe for exploration as all of these lines become increasingly blurred. I'm the perfect person to bring this world to life because I lived it, working as a poster boy to research this underworld. I took extreme measures because I'm passionate about telling authentic stories that resonate. Writing saved my life. Most friends I grew up with ended up either dead or in jail. I would have suffered a similar fate had I not learned how to spill my guts onto the page. Now I utilize my unique perspective to craft stories elevating my culture and shedding light on issues affecting my community with a disruptive style. I view Writing as a powerful tool to change lives and Poster Boy can accomplish that. Coming from an underserved community, not seeing myself represented made me feel like I had no part to play in my own story, as if the world was telling me I didn't exist. Now I pull from my background, telling stories that give voice to the voiceless, so people see themselves in my work and know that they exist. My family suffers from mental illness. My cousin had everything going for her until it was ripped away. She went from a prestigious art program at Oxford to ending up on the street grappling with a psychotic episode. When I got the call to look for her, I thought about how different this brilliant young woman's life would be had my family been better equipped to deal with her mental health struggles. In my community, mental illness isn't something we deal with head on. I wrote Poster Boy for her, to raise this important issue now, and help others who are suffering from this crippling affliction before it's too late.
TONE Atlanta meets Woke, Poster Boy is a new gritty, hyper surrealistic dramedy about the intersection of corporate commercialism and criminality, fine art and graffiti... and genius and madness.
Characters
Michaela “"Mickie"” Monroe -– 20s, Afro-Latina. Mickie is singularly driven to become a successful artist. She believes that getting a big professional win will help her move beyond the struggles that haunted her traumatic childhood in Foster Care and the mental break she had senior year in college. She's had to straddle various lines for her entire life when it comes to her identity and background. Now she finds herself doing the same when it comes to her art. Her Fine Art is too ‘street’ and her Street Art is too fine. When Mickie's plan to work at a glossy art gallery goes sideways, she ends up ducking cops and running the streets for an underground criminal advertising racket. Mickie will have to grapple with all of this and the resurgence of the mental health challenges that derailed her life to become the artist she's always dreamed she could be. Jaimie “Jinx" Lee -– 20s, AAPI. More Hip Hop than K-Pop, Jinx is a street-smart hustler who is also a textbook example of what happens when keeping it real goes wrong. He's addicted to hustling-- the allure of breaking the law, dodging bullets, and running illegal underground street advertising schemes. It's an intoxicating distraction from his longtime dream of relaunching his dormant Street Wear brand until Mickie comes along. Genesis “Genie” Lawrence - 20s, White. Anna Delvey in her own mind, Genie is a Trust Fund Kid who desperately wants to prove herself on her own without getting financial assistance from her parents. She met Mickie in college and she admired how she fought through adversity. Born into New York's Art Gallery Scene, she navigates it in ways Mickie can't. Talon McMichael - 20s, Dominican. Talon was raised by the McMichaels, the same Foster Family who brought Mickie in even after the system wrote her off as a lost cause. Talon and Mickie were tight before tragedy struck and she got relocated to a Group Home Upstate. Talon wasadopted and he graduated from the police academy. Now he's part of a new City-wide Task Force cracking down on rampant graffiti and all the Poster Boys outside who are flooding the streets with it. Lynis - 40s, White. A shadowy former ad exec blackballed for malpractice, Lynis has now become a ruthless underworld figure with resources and connections to run the biggest illegal advertising empire in New York City. Lynis already leveraged Jinx too badly to break free, after entering their orbit, mickie might also find herself unable to escape.
SYNOPSIS A starving artist with mental health issues gets sucked into the seedy underworld of the illegal New York City street advertising business. Mickie, a talented but broke art school grad, is obsessed with becoming a successful artist. After losing out on the art gallery gig she was fighting for, she stumbles into Jinx, a street hustler who gets her caught in the middle of an ugly conflict between warring factions of poster boys who make their bones illegally posting advertisements in highly competitive (and dangerous) New York City neighborhoods. Between ducking cops and bullets, she makes surprising new friendships and faces stunning betrayals. Along the way, Mickie discovers corporate thugs are no different than the gangsters running the street. She'll come to question whether there's any real difference between commercialism, criminality, and the art world she's clawing to break into while tackling her own mental illness that has her teetering on the brink of genius and madness. Poster Boy shines light on the shadowy criminal underbelly of New York City's street art scene, ruthless street hustlers, and how advertising graft intersects with the greedy-- corrupt corporations out there who are silently bankrolling all of them.
SEASON ONE OUTLINE The first season, Mickie's objective will be to rebuild her mental health after suffering a break while completing the mural, becoming a successful street artist, and gaining independence from Genie by descending deeper into the illegal poster underworld with Jinx. In short, Mickie has to become a healthy person again. Still, in this first season we will begin to sow the seeds of Mickie's super-objective, discovering who she truly is. In the seasons to follow, Mickie will consciously move closer to pursuing that super objective as her primary objective. As she garners success as a street artist, it will not satisfy her in the way she hoped it would. She will search for new meaning in a life that once was only about survival and fulfilling artistic goals. She will come to understand who and what she is and try to overcome the damage of her childhood. When our series ends, Mickie will finally break free of the chains her childhood has placed on her, the ruthless ambition of her poster boy rivals, as well as the street art world which she comes to view as one and the same. She'll become a better person and discover her healthier self even if she loses everything she felt she always wanted in the process. Mickie's street artist life will also play An important role. As she garners more buzz for her artwork. she finds independence from Genie and her wealthy family which will alter the dynamic of their relationship. At first Mickie will lash out at her benefactor which will only exacerbate the problem before Ultimately deciding their friendship is too important for her mental health to toss away. The illegal poster underworld will likewise impact Mickie's journey, actually becoming its counterpoint. Buoyed by corporate guerrilla marketing dollars, wild postings have been growing more lucrative and more dangerous. Mickie and Jinx's operation will serve as a microcosm of corporate corruption at large, and how it seeps into artists and their work, tainting their purity. Capitalizing on this influx of corporate cash, are a variety of rival poster crews, many of them violent and willing to do whatever necessary to maintain and expand their territories.
SERIES GOALS Poster Boy tackles mental health issues that plague women in the African American community. By shining a light on these debilitating struggles in a fresh and disruptive way, Poster Boy aims to end this stigma, inspiring people from all communities grappling with these issues to get healthy so they can discover their truth with confidence and without shame.
BILL DUKE (Actor/Director/Producer) has been successfully producing films and television for over 30 years. Along with Michael Shultz and Gordon Parks, he's credited with paving the way for African-Americans in cinema beginning in the 1970's. Bill Duke was appointed to the National Endowment of Humanities by President Bill Clinton. He was also appointed to the California State Film Commission by Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger and honored by the DGA with a Lifetime Achievement Tribute. He received dramatic arts training at Boston University, NYU's Tisch School of Arts, and the American Film Institute. Duke first broke into TV by directing episodes of classic shows including Miami Vice, Cagney and Lacey, Matlock, and Hill Street Blues. Additionally, Bill Duke has directed movies that received wide critical acclaim, including The Killing Floor, A Raisin in the Sun Not Easily Broken, and The Cemetery Club. He is the founder and CEO of Duke Media, a production company located in Los Angeles, California where he currently resides. His directing credits include television series Falcon Crest, The Twilight Zone, and feature films Sister Act 2, Deep Cover, A Rage in Harlem, and Hoodlum. He directed the New York Undercover Pilot and NAACP Image Award–nominated documentaries Light Girls and Dark Girls, one of the most successful shows in OWN Network's history.
JUSTIN CARTER (Writer/Creator/Producer) uses his disruptive, unapologetic comedic style to elevate and celebrate his culture, he highlights the issues affecting his community to inspire others so that they can see themselves reflected in his work and know that they exist. Justin graduated Summa Cum Laude from Morehouse before becoming head of writing and development for Bill Duke. He recurred on Life On Mars, Gotham, and the award-winning Maker Studios series Breaking and Entering which he created, wrote, and produced. He graduated from Upright Citizen's Brigade where he still produces shows. Justin was named one of NBC's Writers On The Verge. He's appeared on Broad City, The Daily Show and was a semi-finalist for Austin Film Festival, Roadmap, and Academy Nicholl Fellowship. He's recently been honored at Hollyweb, Pen International, named a finalist for PAGE Internat'l, Blacklist Warner Media Incubator, Imagine Impact Netflix Incubator, Script Pipeline and slam dance. He's passionate about social justice and helping children from similar backgrounds. He's proud to have served as a mentor for iMentor, the UPS Mentoring Program and created AUC Day to bring children from underserved communities to HBCU's and inspire them to achieve their dreams. He launched a new program in Brooklyn, using his original works to teach Black History. Justin was commissioned through a HUD grant to write an Off-Broadway play about Housing Discrimination. He adapted that into a film which he also directed. Justin resides in New York City and North Hollywood. He's proud to serve on iMentor's Alumni Council and WGA's Committee For Inclusion and Equity.
People often don’t get mental health services they need because they don’t know where to start. If you or someone who you know is suicidal or in emotional distress, Call or Text 988 or chat 988lifeline.org. Trained crisis workers are available to help 24 Hours a day 7 days a week. Talk to your primary care doctor or another health professional about mental health problems. Ask them to connect you with the right mental health services. If you do not have a health professional who is able to assist you, use these resources to find help for yourself, your friends, your family, or your students.
For Inquiries contact justin carter justmcarter@aol.com 404.819.6648.