Dear Dark Swan Film Community,
For a long time, The Dark Swan has lived in conversations, pages, rehearsals, images, and in the generosity of people who believed this story should exist.
On November 7, we begin production.
That sentence carries a lot for me.
What started as an idea about a young Black ballerina struggling to understand whether she has to make herself smaller in order to belong is now becoming something physical. Cast members are stepping into these characters. Choreography is being built. Locations are being prepared. Costumes, music, camera, design, and performance are beginning to meet one another.
Raven is becoming real.
At the center of The Dark Swan is a question I continue to return to:
What happens when a young artist stops asking permission to fully become herself?
Raven has spent years learning how to be precise, disciplined, controlled, and excellent. But somewhere along the way, she has also learned to contain the very things that make her singular.
The film follows what happens when that containment begins to break open.
Over the next several weeks, we'll begin introducing you to some of the extraordinary artists helping bring Raven's world to life, and we'll share glimpses of the process as we move from our first production day in November toward the film's climactic audition sequence in December.
There are parts of that journey we're going to protect. Some images, performances, and discoveries belong to the first time you experience the finished film.
But we want you with us for the making of it.
To everyone who has donated, shared the project, introduced us to someone, offered a location, read a draft, opened a door, encouraged us, challenged us, or simply told us to keep going — thank you.
You have already become part of the story of how The Dark Swan was made.
On November 7, the cameras roll.
And Raven takes her first step.
With gratitude,