Kurzfilm
The Flacalta Effect
Nach apokalyptischen Konsequenzen eines Medikaments mit Anti-Aging-Eigenschaften, kämpfen zwei schwarze Schwestern ums Überleben – und um ihr Aussehen – in dieser satirischen Auseinandersetzung mit der toxischen Schönheitskultur.
Rochée Jeffrey
Rochée Jeffrey is a multi-hyphenate who’s been winning awards for screenwriting and directing since she was a student at Howard University. Once she discovered her superpower for using comedy to make people laugh, think and connect, she never looked back!
Rochée is a graduate of the 2022 WGA Showrunner Training Program. As a TV writer, her credits include Golden Globe-nominated comedy series SMILF (Showtime), WOKE (Hulu), and Co-EP of grown-ish (Freeform). On the film side, she has had projects screen at several festivals around the world, including Austin Film Festival, Palm Springs ShortFest and the American Black Film Festival. Her feature, NOT YOUR AVERAGE QUEEN, was selected for the 2021 WIF/Sundance Financing Intensive and is executive produced by feminist icon, Roxane Gay, Christine Vachon and Valerie Steinberg. As a Film Independent Project Involve Fellow, she wrote the Oscar-qualifying short film Suitable, which premiered on HBO. A skilled storyteller across platforms, she also co-created, co-wrote, and directed NAACP Image Award-winning narrative podcast series YES WE CANNABIS for Audible (starring Sam Richardson, Method Man and Richard Kind).
Rochée hails from Jamaica and lives in Los Angeles. As a performer, you can find her on stand-up comedy stages around town and in short films like BALDWIN BEAUTY, which premiered at Sundance in 2020. She’s represented by IAG and Tantrum Management.
Director Statement
I’ve spent the better part of adulthood navigating Hollywood as an overweight Black woman. The pressure to conform to the very rigid standards of beauty that so often exclude those who look like me is so pervasive that it’s caused a great deal of insecurities. THE FLACALTA EFFECT is a satirical exploration of how our culture’s obsession with beauty and youth is literally killing us. Using humor amidst a heightened reality, we offer social commentary on how beauty culture devolves into toxicity.
Most content in dystopian settings is oddly post-racial. But it’s hard to envision any world where race and racism wouldn’t impact our experiences—especially when all hell breaks loose! That’s why it was essential to approach this topic through the lens of my lived experience instead of drawing from the white horror canon. I chose to submit a new entry to the genre that considers how it would look for Black women to survive an apocalypse. Even in their undead state, the zombies remain hot, satirizing the unyielding pressure of toxic beauty culture. Pop culture has divorced the zombie myth from its roots in Haitian folklore, and I wanted to honor this origin as a Caribbean American. Even our score, composed by genre-bending artist SassyBlack, is infused with Blackness and lends an authentic, entrancing feel that has yet to be deployed in horror or horror comedy.
SHAUN OF THE DEAD and GET OUT are our visual and tonal references. We wanted this film to effortlessly blend humor with horror and be both absurd and grounded.
Cast & Crew
Rochée Jeffrey: Director, Writer
(Mr. Talented, High Heel, SMILF, Grown-ish)
Ebony Elaine Hardin: Producer
(Mr. Talented, The Bluest Hour, Dinner Party Dictator)
Takara Joseph Producer
(The Black Beauty Effect)
Rochée Jeffrey: Key Cast „Keesha“
(Baldwin Beauty)
Tristina Lee: Key Cast „Toya“
(Bel-Air)
