“The Word” is a 10 minute short film with a simple premise: the billionaire class decides to give African-Americans reparations for slavery…but there is one catch. They want to do the one thing that they are no longer able to do: use “the word” without any repercussions.

This script was originally written in 2009 after half of the country went insane upon the election of President Barack Obama. Even then it seemed too absurd of a project to put into production, so it sat filed away for over a decade. During those intervening years the world became more and more absurd, and the scenario didn’t seem as far-fetched any longer. I sat at a film festival discussing this script with Sam Demaris, one of the leads of the film…and he suggested that we move to production before the world’s absurdity dwarfs that of the script.

In 2008 there were 1,215 billionaires worldwide, which ballooned to 2,668 in 2022. Many of them can literally write their own ticket to space…but as social media has shown; not even billionaires can escape the power of language.

The film will use ‘the word”, and wield it to mock the powerful. From Dick Gregory disguising social commentary for mainstream audiences as the first African American to headline white clubs, to George Carlin’s “Seven Dirty Words”, fast forward all the way to the success of “The Daily Show”; comedy has been used to advance nuanced discourse to the benefit of society. With “The Word” we hope to do the same and spur further conversation.