The debate about young people’s social media use has hit a peak in recent months, with Australia introducing legislation to ban social media for under-16s. The EU and the United Kingdom have followed the Aussies with their own prohibitive laws. The debate is valid but nuanced. There have been undeniably positive effects from the social media explosion at the turn of the century. In our world of cinema, for instance, platforms like Instagram and Letterboxd have inspired a contemporary wave of internationally-minded cinephilia. And there’s perhaps been no greater beneficiary of this wave than American writer and filmmaker Bridgett M. Davis.
Davis was rediscovered in 2024, some 30 years after she completed her first and, to date, only feature film, Naked Acts (1996), a complex comedy about the daughter of a former blaxploitation star, whose own foray into acting hits a snag when her role in a low-budget indie film requires her to do a nude scene. Despite positive notices in the trades and elsewhere, Naked Acts wasn’t picked up for distribution. Davis has said in the past that distributors told her, like many of the independent Black filmmakers of the 1990s, that they couldn’t see a commercial audience for her film. Davis independently screened Naked Acts across New York before placing the film in the Black Film Center & Archive at Indiana University and leaving filmmaking behind for a career as a writer and academic.
“I had been an academic for decades at that point, and I loved the idea of a scholar coming along and studying the film,” Davis tells Deadline from New York, where she is based. And that’s exactly what happened when Maya S. Cade, the curator behind the popular Black Film Archive, an online record of global Black filmmaking, visited Indiana University in 2022. After a restoration and reissue via Milestone Films with support from Cade, Naked Acts has quickly become a cult hit, screening across the festival circuit and enjoying extended runs across the U.S. and multiple international sites like the BFI in London.
“I was just happy Naked Acts was out in the world,” Davis says, adding, “But all of these beautiful young people reviewing Naked Acts on Letterbox kept asking, Why didn’t you make another film? It became clear that people may actually want to hear more from me.”
And more is what audiences are set to receive. Last week, Davis announced that she has set plans to produce a second film project, a short titled Helga, that she has written and will direct, with Cade signed on to produce. The pair launched an online fundraising campaign to meet production costs and reached their target in three days.
“It felt like receiving a resounding yes,” Davis says of the success of the fundraising campaign. “People are saying, yes, go for it, which is incredibly gratifying because I didn’t know if people rediscovering Naked Acts would translate into people really wanting to see something new from me. I just wasn’t sure.”
Davis and Cade say Helga serves as a proof of concept for a feature version they plan to produce. The film follows a cult singer/songwriter who is thrust into a unique journey when her “lost” 1990s masterpiece is rediscovered by a young music critic.
“I wanted to tell a story that resonated with me right now. And obviously, the idea of someone having their work overlooked for decades and then stepping back out into the world is something I care about,” Davis explains. “But I also realized that it is a universal story. Many people have felt overlooked no matter their age.”
Performance artist Helga Davis stars in the title role alongside veteran guitarist Vernon Reid. Also starring are Joy Brunson (This Is Us), Tyler Davis Fields, Tayler Montague, and Tayler Montague (The Equalizer).
Helga will serve as Cade’s first producing credit. A longtime curator and writer, Cade will soon assume the role of President at Milestone Films. The indie distributor is responsible for restoring and releasing highly influential titles such as Charles Burnett’s Killer of Sheep, Kent Mackenzie’s The Exiles, and Mikhail Kalatozov’s I Am Cuba.
As a producer, Cade says she aims to create an environment where “creativity and abundance” is possible for her filmmakers in a filmmaking ecosystem that remains hostile to many.
“The questions that Bridgett faced when creating Naked Acts are the same questions that we’re facing now, which is, how do we sustain Black filmmaking?” Cade says. “Just look at the conversation around You, Me & Tuscany, and how people said Hollywood would never make another film like that if we didn’t support it. But history tells us that Hollywood’s investment has never been the answer to Black filmmaking.”
Helga will shoot across Brooklyn next month, and Davis is aiming to have a finished film by the end of the year before a festival run in 2027. Discussions about the feature version, Davis explains, have already begun.
“People have been approaching us already,” she says. “I guess we created the environment for people to not only be excited about seeing Helga, but for people to appreciate that they can play a role in my next feature.”
Alongside work on Helga, Davis is also in development with Plan B Entertainment on a feature adaptation of her 2019 book The World According to Fannie Davis. Davis has written the film’s screenplay, and Channing Godfrey Peoples (Miss Juneteenth) has been attached to direct. Searchlight was previously attached as the studio but is no longer involved in the project.
“We’re moving along with development,” Davis says of the project, which explores the eventful life story of her mother, Fannie Davis. “There is a major actor attached. That’s all I’m allowed to say. I’m excited because I wrote the screenplay. And it has been beautifully revised by the Black woman director who will actually helm the project, Channing Godfrey Peoples, someone I really admire. I loved her first feature.”
Davis added: “It’s been a process, but it feels like the timing is right.”
Naked Acts is currently streaming on The Criterion Channel in the U.S.
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