New York City based poet, writer, and first time filmmaker Kamaria J. Hodge could have let fear and inexperience stop her from stepping into the director’s chair, but not only would that have been an affront to her gift as an artist, it would have deprived the world of the beautiful gift that is “Bill & Robert,” the short film that serves as Hodge’s directorial debut and is scheduled to make it’s Atlanta premiere during the virtual Out On Film Festival kicking off on September 24.  

“Bill & Robert” is a love story told in chronological order between two Black men in New York City in 1967 that blooms just five years after homosexuality was decriminalized in the United States. Bill & Robert are two young gay black men who despite their environment and the stigma associated with their sexual identities, are accepting of who they are individually, and who they become together.

“Although, we do not often (if ever), see two Black men who are kind to one another, and who choose to love each other and spend a life together, in the media or in movies and television, we in the Black community and in the Black LGBTQIA community know that it exists,” said Hodge. 

Brandon C. Smith, who plays Bill and also serves as a producer, tells The Reckoning that it was “important for us to show realistic humans that happen to love each other. Young LGBT folks need to see positive images of us because we don’t have that,” he said. “That was a problem for me in my 20s, I still don’t see myself represented in a way that’s very loving.” 

“I wasn’t seeing that tenderness in media and I was feeling it every time I was around my friends,” said Hodge. “I have an uncle who had a partner for 40 years who passed a few years ago. I saw how tender they were together and how much they loved each other. They had such a tenderness and a sense of home with each other. I wanted to see that and I wanted to let other people see that, and I definitely wanted to show young queer folk that this is possible.” 

The Reckoning sat down with the emerging filmmaker, along with Smith to learn more about the short film with an $800 budget that was birthed out of poetry and initially envisioned as a silent film, to the nine-minute final piece that serves as an unapologetic display of Black queer love, tenderness, and vulnerability. 

You can watch The Reckoning’s interview with Hodge and Smith in the video below. 

Check out the trailer for “Bill & Robert” here. 

Purchase your ticket to see “Bill & Robert” during the Out on Film Festival here.