Black Icarus

It’s like committing suicide with sandpaper

ABOUT

In North Florida, fifteen-year-old Jay fights for the love and adoration of his father, an addict,
and alcoholic who nevertheless continuously tries to be the best father he knows how to be. The dream of having a healthy father-and-son relationship seems less likely because of Jimmie’s substance abuse and alcoholism, which keeps him absent most nights. Jimmie’s addiction is also the source of drama in the household. But through adversity, love continues to shine through.

YEAR 2022

RUN TIME 19:16 Min

EMAIL jimmiecohh@gmail.com Website: Black Icarus Film

CAST & CREW CREDITS

DIRECTOR Jimmie Thomas, Jr.

EXECUTIVE PRODUCERS Enora Heard & Jimmie Thomas Jr.

DIRECTOR OF PHOTOGRAPHY James Mitchell

EDITOR Dominick Smith

COMPOSER Jermaine Fletcher

WRITTEN BY Jimmie Thomas Jr.

BRANDING ILLUSTRATOR Yifan Luo

FIELD PRODUCER Maurice Hayes

SOUND Shazi Atam

PRODUCTION ASSISTANTS Troed Williams Jr. & Tavis Williams

PRINCIPAL CAST

Tray Chaney | Nick Martin | Larry Martin

DIRECTOR’S STATEMENT

Black Icarus is a loosely autobiographical story about my childhood experiences with family trauma. The film speaks to the families of loved ones who suffer from generational trauma, addiction, and alcoholism while humanizing the victims.

With the insights of now being a father, I made this film because after going through the trauma I never received any professional help.

In my youth, it caused me to be angry and not trust people but also strive for greatness…. I want to speak to the youth whom I work with daily and let them know that they can also make it out of their situations. Meaningful to me because going through my own personal and family traumas I wanted to do better and be better, to be the best fathers we can be, set examples for kids, help others understand the common traumas we face. There are moments that happened in my life that will harden some and break others.

Life is truly a choice. Love with the accompany of faith is what we decided to choose in order to help our loved ones turn the corner to sobriety. With this film, we will tell the hard truth that is the light
that lies in the belly of darkness. We want the audience to be moved to help their Black Icarus seek the light. I’m a filmmaker and educator who creates to give people from my community a voice while teaching them how to create a voice for themselves.

DIRECTOR BIO

Jimmie Thomas, Jr is a filmmaker and educator from Florida. He holds a BA in broadcast journalism from Florida A&M University and an MFA in filmmaking from the Maryland Institute College of Art. His first film, The Curators of Hip Hop: A Story of Independence, was screened at the Pan African Film Festival and All Three Coast (A3C) Festival and later picked up by streaming platforms Amazon Prime and Kweli TV. Jimmie toured the documentary to over 30 colleges and universities in the United States, from Florida State University to the University of Hawaii. After the tour, he co-founded the Media Rhythm Institute (MRI), a media and entertainment education company for youth in Baltimore. Recently he and his partners scaled MRI to MRI Studios which was awarded the BOOST program from Baltimore Downtown Partnership where they will service and educate artists on how to create and run a sustaining viable business.