The Haitian-American duo Joshua Jean-Baptiste and Edson Jean has hit the jackpot with their new series, GROWN.
Last fall the Haitian-American filmmakers, hosted a seminar called ‘Don’t Take Yes for an Answer,’ which took place at Tower Theater in Miami. This event was successful, and they proved what they meant by don’t take yes for an answer with their new GROWN series.
Adaptive Studios, Complex Networks, and Miami Dade College’s Miami Film Festival premiered the Grown series on June 5, 2018, at the Tower Theater in Miami. Two episodes were shown and was followed by a Q, and A session with the writers let by Miami Film Festival’s Jaie Laplante, Executive Director & Director of Programming.
This new series was created by Joshua Jean-Baptiste, Edson Jean, and Maria Corina Ramirez. GROWN is a spinoff of the show that won Project Greenlight in 2016 which was a joint venture launched by Verizon and Hearst.
Both Jean-Baptiste and Jean star in “GROWN,” “which is a comedy about the ups and downs of two dichotomous twenty-something cousins who are forced to cohabit.” The duo states they wanted this show to be authentic with real Haitian actors and actresses, along with other nationalities such as Cuban and Venezuela; which they have succeeded in doing.
Jean said show is important to “starting that conversation, a dialogue” about the Haitian culture and the various cultures depicted in the show. Jean-Baptiste conveyed that “without authenticity, the show doesn’t exist.” Ramirez (who is from Venezuela) shared that growing up she saw no one looking like her on TV and in writing this show, she want to share some of her nationally with the audience.
On June 5th the theater was packed, and the audience was noticeable enthusiastic. Many described it as “authentic, real, and funny.” A Q and A session followed the show, and this went well. The audience got a feel about the history of the writers and the background of the show.
The show can be accessed on the Complex Network, judge for yourself.
