NEW FEATURE FILM PROJECTS

Dante is currently developing an independent feature film that will be shot in Michigan as part of the Michigan Film Commission Production Incentive Program.  

The project is in the early stages of development and investment opportunities are still available.  To obtain information regarding investing contact chief administrative officer and general counsel Leroy Jenkins at lleejen@aol.com or call 703-409-5938.

Dante has teamed  with Mike Wiley, a every talented play write and actor to write the script. Many of the production team members for THE DOLL will return for the new production.  Like THE DOLL it will be a period piece.  The film will go into production in  2010  and will be shot in Detroit and Grand Rapids.

As a result of the incredible success of THE DOLL Dante is planning  to make another film based on the work of Charles W. Chesnutt and he plans to shoot entirely in North Carolina. The script will be written by Gerard Brown who is best known for writing "JUICE”  which starred the late Tupac Shakur.

MOST RECENT PBS PROJECT

Dante James (independent filmmaker) recently completed writing and directing, Harlem in Montmartre, A Paris Jazz Story, which tells the story of the jazz age in Paris between the First and Second World Wars, and explores a fascinating yet often neglected era of African-American cultural history.  After the peace treaty was signed in Versailles, many black Americans remained in Europe rather that return to the brutal segregation and racism of America.

Over the next two decades they created an expatriate community of musicians, entertainers, and entrepreneurs, primarily congregating in Paris’s hilly Montmarte neighborhood. Some achieved enduring fame, while others have faded into history.

Inspired by the book by William Shack and utilizing special performance footage of a jazz band that evokes the spirit, look and sound of the times along with rare archival material, from both France and America, this remarkable performance documentary features key figures such as James Reese Europe, Josephine Baker, Sidney Bechet, Ada Bricktop Smith, Eugene Bullard, Django Reinhardt and many more.

The film will air in the AUGUST of 2009 as part of the PBS series GREAT PERFORMANCES.  A preview of the film will be available on this site soon.

THE DOLL

The 2008 production release of The Doll, a twenty-minute dramatic short film, is set in the early 1900s and tells the story of Tom Taylor, the black proprietor of the Wyandot Hotel Barbershop.     read more