Swivel
Keep your head on the swivel
ABOUT
After a heated exchange with a college fling, Jasmine gathers herself and goes to her car to leave. The car doesn’t start. She tries one more time—nothing—and reaches for her phone to call for help only to be startled by a knock on the window. It’s a burly gentleman in mechanic’s clothes. Having to decide between her fear of a stranger standing outside her door and relief that someone might help, she cautiously accepts the offer to fix her car. But she can’t shake her anxiety, and should she?
YEAR 2022
RUN TIME 10:00 Min
EMAIL griffinavery01@gmail.com Website: Like The Paper
CAST & CREW CREDITS
DIRECTOR Avery Griffin
EXECUTIVE PRODUCERS Avery Griffin & Zion Pyatt
DIRECTOR OF PHOTOGRAPHY Alexis Chinery
SOUND Justin Foreman
COMPOSER Brandon Woody
WRITTEN BY Kevin Stanton
EDITOR Avery Griffin
PRINCIPAL CAST
Norel Taylor | J. Rose | Antonio Smith
DIRECTOR’S STATEMENT
Black women and girls made up a third of the almost 300,000 US missing persons cases in 2020, according to the National Crime Information Center. Yet those cases are often marginalized or ignored by law enforcement and national media. The oldest brother of two teenage sisters whose worst fear is for them to go missing, I am using my filmmaking to call attention to this pernicious disinterest in missing black girls and women.
Swivel was created to increase awareness of this problem, so that vulnerable women and girls and those who might protect them know next time they step outside to keep their head on the swivel.
DIRECTOR BIO
Avery Griffin is an emerging filmmaker and educator born and raised in Baltimore City. A Saul Zaentz Innovation Fund Fellow, he prides himself on documenting authentic stories that need to be told while pushing the envelope through experimental techniques. Having seven years of professional editing experience, he was the head editor for the short film Gales, which was selected to the 2021 Blackstar Film Festival and 2021 American Black Film Festival.
FILM AND PRODUCTION STILLS
AWARDS
FULL FILM
WHERE ARE THEY NOW?
Avery Griffin is an Assistant Professor at Notre Dame of Maryland University. He does video editing jobs for a multitude of production companies.
(Update provided in March 2023)