Boxed

The plot

A fictionalized short film based on the true story of the terrifying daring escape of Henry "Box" Brown, an enslaved man who used creativity to escape from slavery in 1849 by mailing himself to freedom.

Wanjiru Njendu is an award-winning Kenyan-American filmmaker based in Los Angeles and a member of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (2020). Her creative imagination earned her the nickname 'Magic' at a young age. Her African and American upbringing influences her approach as a writer and director for film and television enabling her to have a versatile voice in both African stories and Western stories. This versatility led to her being chosen as a fellow in the Producer's Guild of America Diversity workshop. Wanjiru's film credits include several award-winning short films which have played in over 80 film festivals.

Her short film has been accepted into 60+ film festivals including Cucalorus, Montreal International Black Film Festival (MIBFF), Idyllwild International Festival of Cinema (Winner: Mary Austin Award excellence in Screenwriting: Short film - Wanjiru Njendu), The Phoenix Film Festival - Australia ( Winner Best Short film), Papaya Rocks Film Festival - London (Winner Best Director & Best Cinematography), The Catalyst Film Festival - London (Winner - the Director's choice award for best short fiction film) among others. Boxed had qualified and was submitted FYC for the 2020 Academy awards for Best Short Film- Live Action.

Her documentary film Safari ya Jamhuri: The Journey to freedom was used to provide evidence for a lawsuit against the British Government by the MAU MAU colonial war survivors from Kenya. Wanjiru has studio experience having worked for both Disney Studios in various areas and Universal Pictures' Creative Marketing.

She was the shadowing director on the Netflix series "Daybreak" under Mark Tonderai. She recently directed a horror short film that was acquired by Fox Digital Studios. She is working on getting two feature films, Reghost, a post apocalyptic comedy-horror and Lionheart, a coming of age film set in 1995 Brooklyn, financed.

The idea for Boxed came about via chance encounter I had with Karyn Parsons (Fresh Prince of Bel Air, Major Payne) at the 2018 Hollywood Creative Forum. Karyn runs a company Sweet Blackberry that teaches children Black History via animation. The first story they did was Henry Brown's.I latched onto the idea of telling Henry's story, but as a psychological thriller with the audience in the box with him for the duration of his trip. I thought inside the box.

Sometimes you find the story and sometimes the story finds you. As a director I always want to make a film that is not only very stylized but that sparks conversation, as a person I want my stories to say something about Humanity. While Boxed was sparked by a conversation with Karyn Parsons about Black History, it also very relevant to present day where migrants are being sold as slaves in Libya and the present environment and hostility in the country. The Only Thing Necessary for the Triumph of Evil is that Good Men Do Nothing.

Very often society forgets that them can very easily become us. I chose to make Boxed the way I did to to remind the audience as they watched and experienced what Henry Box Brown went through, that we are accountable when we stand aside. Whether in the past or the present, if we stand aside we are part of the problem. Boxes and chains can be both physical and mental.

The production of this film was very innovative as the film was shot as a psychological drama with a very diverse cast and crew., MOS (No sound recorded on set), with all voices, ADR and sound recorded and designed in post-production to enable us capture the authenticity of the time period. Our sound design and mix was done by John Cantu who was the trailer editor behind Get Out And Us as well as one of 2 people who came up with the Remix Tethered Version of the song I've got 5 on it, which featured both in the Us trailer and film.

• Age Rating General (12 and under)
• Running time 00:06:10 mins



Whats Next?

Find Screenings Newsletter Host A Screening