Hold On

Hold On ... Pain Ends

​

About the film​

​

Since Malcolm Jamal-Warner died, I've been thinking about how collective grief can heal, while individual grief can isolate.

What happens when grief becomes numbness? When thoughts of life teeter on the edge of self-annihilation?

 

After losing my Grandmother, I understood how loss leaves us with more than absence - it fills us with regrets.

 

The “woulda, coulda, shouldas” inundate us with what-ifs, thoughts of words unsaid, and realizations of the chances we'll never get. Nothing changes the fact that our loved ones are gone, and we can’t bring them back.

​

This spiraling regret is the core of “Hold On.”

​

“Hold On” is a dramatic, intimate character study. I wanted to expose the raw immediacy of loss through the slice-of-life lens. I wanted to acknowledge the superhero role husbands and fathers play for their families. I wanted to glimpse how these perceived roles and expectations, whether self-imposed or cultural, can intensify isolation during grief.

​​
 

Our mission is to partner with nonprofits and the mental health community as they find creative ways to engage clients and the greater mental health community. The goal is two-fold: screen at film festivals worldwide and partner with nonprofits, community health care centers, and mental health panels to raise the volume of these necessary yet taboo dialogues.

​​

​

"Hold On" was produced as part of the Women of Color Filmmaker's Directors' lab,