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Below are a few of the fim projects BACKLIGHT ENTERTAINMENT, INC.  currently has in development:

R & B

Logline:  Professional jealousy sets in when a wannabe rapper is forced to watch his wife live out his dreams of stardom in the music industry.

 ROYAL MONROE is the “Fresh Prince of Brooklyn":  Charismatic and blessed with a gift for rhymin.  His wife, BIANCA, is his biggest fan.  Both Royal and Bianca  work two jobs to save up enough money for Royal to cut his demo.  At the last minute, Royal’s back-up singer falls ill.  With money and time running out, Royal convinces Bianca to lay the vocal tracks in her place.  The demo is hot and Royal gets it in the hands of a major label executive.  When the label calls to schedule a meeting, Royal and Bianca are convinced they’re finally on their way.  But once they get to the meeting, it immediately becomes apparent – the person the label wants isn’t Royal, it’s Bianca.   Now, Royal must watch from the sidelines as his wife lives out his dreams.


Inspired by the hip-hop classic Krusch Groove, R &B is a romantic dramedy about two young people—committed to each other—trying to hold onto their relationship amidst the chaos and distractions of newfound fame.

EL CUBANO (Based on a True Story)

Logline:  The son of Cuban immigrants struggles to make America his home and, in the process, changes the face of "America's Game"forever.

After fleeing the racial hostility and oppression of Tampa, Florida, Alejandro Pompez settles in New York’s bustling Harlem neighborhood.  Frustrated by the lack of “legitimate” job prospects, Pompez soon throws his hat into the illegal Numbers racket. Within a few short years, he emerges as “El Cubano”--one of Harlem’s wealthiest and most-respected Numbers’ Kings.  A lifelong baseball enthusiast, Pompez funnels his millions from the Numbers racket into Negro League Baseball by purchasing the New York Cuban Stars franchise.  Alejandro Pompez uses his unique cultural identity as an Afro-Cuban-American to successfully cultivate a highly skilled labor force of Latino baseball talent.  Pompez’s popularity in both the Latino and African-American neighborhoods soars; and both his baseball team and his Numbers businesses flourish. 

When Brooklyn Dodgers’ owner Branch Rickey signs Jackie Robinson in 1945, the collapse of the Negro League is imminent.  Though his New York Cubans would go on to win the 1947 Negro League World Series, the victory is bittersweet. The League has already lost several players, as well as much of its core fan base, to the Major Leagues.  As the rest of the Negro League team owners  close up shop, Pompez adeptly negotiates a deal that will save his flailing franchise when he  convinces Horace Stoneham—owner of Major League Baseball’s New York Giants--to sign him as a scout--with the New York Cubans serving as a farm team to the Giants. With the stroke of a pen, Pompez makes history and changes the complexion of Major League Baseball forever by becoming the primary thruway to baseball talent in Latin America, and Major League Baseball’s first executive of color. 


UNION BELLES (Based on a True Story)

Logline:  A Virginia socialite heads up a team of spies hired by the Union Army to monitor and infiltrate the Confederate government during the Civil War.

Richmond socialite ELIZABETH VAN LEW is Scarlett O’Hara with a Cause. Fiesty, fearless, and an ardent supporter of the Abolitionist Movement to free the slaves, Elizabeth is a natural choice to spy for the Union Army when the Confederates move their capitol city to Richmond in 1862.  Under the tutelage of Union strategist LT. ROLAND BANFIELD, Elizabeth assembles her team comprised of:  “slaves”--CHRIS and SARAH, the scintillating owner of Richmond’s brothel-- FIONA, a crafty Scotsman named MCNIVEN, and Elizabeth’s surrogate daughter, MARY--a young Black schoolteacher who Elizabeth freed and sent to Philadelphia as a child.

Based on a true story, “Union Belles” is a demonstration of tremendous sacrifice, unwavering perseverance and immeasurable courage.  The adventures of Elizabeth Van Lew and her team of spies—both men and women, Black and White, enslaved and elite--reminds us that freedom is and has always been a cause worth fighting for.


 
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