In this episode I speak with writer Director Bomani J. Story about his new film “The Angry Black Girl and Her Monster”. A new horror film out in theaters June 9 and headed to streaming service Shudder. The indie horror film is a remix of on Mary Shelley’s “Frankenstein” and follows a teenaged genius named Vicaria. Who, after her brother’s murder, decides she’s going to find a cure – for death. Now, I’m not going to lie, this is absolutely a horror movie about Black trauma. However, the bloodletting just for “trauma porn”, instead the entire film serves as a metaphor within the horror genre as a commentary on the effects of intergenerational trauma. BAFTA Award winning actress Laya DeLeon Hayes (God of War: Ragnarok, The Equalizer) is incredible in this film alongside Chad L. Coleman, (The Walking Dead, From) and Denzel Whitaker (Black Panther). There are some mild spoilers in this interview. So if you want to see it fresh, go watch the movie and then come back and check out this interview The Angry Black girl and Her Monster is out now in select theaters and headed to Shudder LISTEN BELOW OR CLICK HERE TO LISTEN ON YOUR FAVORITE PODCATCHER If you enjoyed my chat with JACQUE AYE please subscribe and leave a comment over on iTunes for me if you can, it really helps me out. Or, screenshot your podcatcher and tag theblerdgurl over on IG stories with what you liked about it! Show Notes: Bomani Instagram Film Instagram Movie Website Fix your Credit with Self Pop Paranormal TBG Patreon Transcript Email Download New Tab 00:00:00:00 - 00:00:07:07 Karama so, Bomani, welcome. I'm so excited to talk to you about this film. 00:00:07:07 - 00:00:14:24 Karama And as all the little moments of horror that I like. But then there's also like an underlying theme, 00:00:14:24 - 00:00:24:18 Karama let's start with where this came from. What was the inspiration for this film and when did you find time to write this? 00:00:24:20 - 00:00:45:15 Bomani You know, I mean, starts starts with the literature, man. Like, I love the book. I'm a huge, huge fan of the book. And I just felt like they were leaving a lot of stuff from the book on the floor. And I wanted to not only do that, but also recapture the focus because a lot of people focus on the monster. 00:00:45:17 - 00:01:04:19 Bomani And I wanted to bring it back to, you know, the story is about Frankenstein, Rise and fall, you know, the mad scientist. So I wanted to bring that back. And on top of that, I wanted I grew up with two older sisters who, you know, mentored me my whole life, what I love and adore. And I use them as my muse for this. 00:01:04:19 - 00:01:08:15 Bomani So you mix all that and out comes this. 00:01:08:17 - 00:01:17:13 Karama So, okay, so I got two questions for you. Seven From that by book you mean Mary Shelley's Frankenstein, right? Because it's a bunch of Frankenstein that Oh, yeah. 00:01:17:15 - 00:01:18:21 Bomani Mary Shelley's Frankenstein. 00:01:18:21 - 00:01:40:11 Karama To make sure everybody else. And I don't know how your sisters feel, but I'm the oldest and my brothers are younger, and I don't know how I feel. If they wrote a movie about me chopping people up and trying to turn the neighborhood into monsters. So did you get along with your sister? 00:01:40:13 - 00:01:45:15 Bomani No, I got along with my sisters, you know, I mean, obviously as siblings. So, you know, there's going to be dust ups, but. 00:01:45:20 - 00:01:47:24 Karama It's going to be ill because. 00:01:48:01 - 00:01:48:24 Bomani Yeah, yeah. 00:01:49:00 - 00:01:52:11 Bomani But no, we we all love each other. We're Gucci. Yeah, that's. 00:01:52:12 - 00:01:53:24 Karama Actually, speaking to that, 00:01:53:24 - 00:02:00:22 Karama were there moments that you actually wrote things in the script for Vicaria to say they were like, pulled right out of your life? 00:02:00:24 - 00:02:06:20 Bomani Yes, absolutely. They're record right out of their mouths. You know, 00:02:06:20 - 00:02:07:00 Bomani some. 00:02:07:00 - 00:02:10:05 Bomani Of the parts are more like. 00:02:10:07 - 00:02:15:22 Bomani More obvious to them of just like, oh, I remember saying that, you know, But other. 00:02:15:22 - 00:02:17:06 Karama Parts are quite like that. 00:02:17:11 - 00:02:19:09 Bomani Yeah. I was like, yeah, well, one of them's. 00:02:19:09 - 00:02:21:09 Bomani Exactly what she said. 00:02:21:09 - 00:02:30:16 Bomani And then there are other moments where, you know, they they don't know. So it's like there's Easter eggs on top of Easter eggs for four people in here. 00:02:30:16 - 00:02:34:21 Bomani And even for my sisters, you know, specifically for them, 00:02:34:21 - 00:02:39:17 Bomani don't tell them, like you just have to watch it again. And then you can you can see it for yourself. 00:02:39:17 - 00:02:57:24 Karama well, I'm thinking of Mary Shelley's Frankenstein. I'm thinking of Victor Frankenstein being been very wealthy. You know, I come from a wealthy family, just wants to experiment and it sort of feels guilty for what he's done later. But Victoria is not wealthy. Her her. She's a different kind of relationship with death. 00:02:58:05 - 00:03:00:15 Karama Can you go into that a little bit? 00:03:00:17 - 00:03:14:17 Bomani No. Yeah. I mean, I just always kind of saw it as like she was someone who was going to put this together. Like I wanted her to be an actual an actual genius, an actual inventor. 00:03:14:17 - 00:03:22:11 Bomani I never saw it as someone who, like, how many multibillionaires are actually just like, inventing things. 00:03:22:13 - 00:03:34:06 Bomani You know, to me it's just like, hey, there are you know, there might be some. But as far as my knowledge of the people I like, you know, it's just like they're they're genius comes from being able to, like, invest in pay off. Like, you know, it's like, exactly. 00:03:34:08 - 00:03:38:00 Karama You know, those Easter eggs. You have a couple in there about Edison. I was like. 00:03:38:02 - 00:03:40:01 Bomani Yes, I. 00:03:40:01 - 00:03:48:16 Karama Feel I feel the same way kind of about Bill Gates. I'm like, did he really invent all the things? Yeah. Did he just pay for all the places where all the low income people invented that? 00:03:48:19 - 00:03:54:20 Bomani Yeah, you know what I mean? It's just like the people who are actually, like, building a chair is a carpenter. 00:03:54:22 - 00:03:56:05 Bomani Right? Not a. 00:03:56:05 - 00:04:19:19 Bomani Business owner. It's a carpenter. Right. And so to me, she, like, she needed to put this together. So to me she need to have all these elements, right? So it was important to me for it to look like, you know, she scavenged these things. But like, you can't stop the spark, you know? I mean, the first car looks nothing like what it looks like today, but it was put together a certain way, you know, with the means that they had. 00:04:19:21 - 00:04:32:24 Bomani So to me, that's like that was really important to me to kind of capture how her and genius works. Because to me, that's what that's the element of genius that I feel like people forget like of where it's coming from. 00:04:33:01 - 00:04:53:04 Karama Yeah, no, absolutely. And she is a genius. And you show her actually in her something. How sectors relate to being the only black girl in the all white class. Oh, my God. All right. We had all kinds of buttons. But is but that that feeling of otherness and that feeling of being foreign and you are a monster to them because they don't understand you. 00:04:53:09 - 00:04:55:02 Karama And don't be a smart black girl. 00:04:55:04 - 00:04:58:17 Bomani Oh, it hurts my sisters. 00:04:58:17 - 00:05:00:21 Karama Did your sisters help you with some of those lines, too? 00:05:01:01 - 00:05:02:03 Bomani Oh. 00:05:02:05 - 00:05:05:14 Bomani I mean, that scene in the school is directly what happened to one of my sisters. 00:05:05:15 - 00:05:06:13 Bomani Oh, wow. 00:05:06:14 - 00:05:28:22 Bomani Yeah. You know, it's like it's kind of a it's a legendary story around our dinner table, you know, that, like, keeps comes up every once in a while. It's like a greatest hits, you know? So. Yeah, no, like, um, as I said, it was like I was, I was musing after them and, like, and they thought when stuff would happen, they would think maybe I wasn't listening, but I'm always listening. 00:05:28:24 - 00:05:32:00 Karama The younger brothers are always, listen, you got to be careful what you say in front of them. 00:05:32:02 - 00:05:32:09 Bomani Yeah. 00:05:32:14 - 00:05:34:17 Karama My younger brothers are twins. I had it. 00:05:34:19 - 00:05:36:21 Bomani Worse. 00:05:36:23 - 00:05:43:13 Karama They they still kicking my ass. So I just want to corroborate something. This is your first. 00:05:43:13 - 00:05:46:05 Bomani So your first? 00:05:46:07 - 00:05:47:01 Bomani Yeah. 00:05:47:03 - 00:05:54:23 Karama I'm just checking because I'm just going to run off the cast a little bit. Leah Gillette, Jillian Hayes and Hayes. 00:05:54:23 - 00:05:55:11 Bomani You? 00:05:55:13 - 00:06:12:18 Karama Denzel Whitaker. Chad Coleman. Okay, so we got some heavy hitters here for your first time out of the gate. How does that feel when you saw the cast list, when you saw the cast accepting these roles? 00:06:12:20 - 00:06:42:16 Bomani Man, it just made me feel like I was like, wow, Like they're responding, right? Like they they're enjoying this stuff. Right? And like, that was that was phenomenal to me. Like, it just felt so gratifying, you know, throughout this filmmaking process. Like, it's it's a tough thing to get a film off the ground and get it made. B
