Genesis Block Entrepreneur Spotlight: The Honey’s Are Blazing Trails for Female Filmmakers

Exploring the authentic human experience on screen, Honey Head Films has produced 13 compelling, narrative shorts to date — carving space for female-centric stories and giving voice to the Wilmington region.

Honey Head Films, an award-winning, female-led production company co-founded by Erika Edwards and Kristi Ray. The dynamic duo were the winners of the 2021 Fall Cohort Back on the Block Accelerator Demo Day and have rapidly become one of the fastest growing companies in southeastern North Carolina. Honey Head films launched in 2016, driven by a mission to fill a massive gap in the film industry. Women accounted for only 14% of production in the industry, demonstrating the lack of opportunities for creative development for female filmmakers.

“The Honeys,” as they’re sometimes known, have been profiled by multiple Wilmington media outlets, and won the “best filmmakers” award from former local weekly Encore.

Honey Head officially launched its fundraising effort for “Imogene,” done through the film-centric crowdfunding site Seed&Spark, with an event at Blue Surf Arboretum West, 414 Arboretum Drive in Wilmington on January 13, 2022. The Honey’s are trying to raise about $150,000 for “A Song for Imogene,” which they say will enable them to show potential investors on future projects that they can turn low-budget into high quality.

Honey Head Films is an Award-winning, female-led production company giving your project meaning from concept through post.

We caught up with the incredible team at Honey Head Films to get the scoop on their meteoric rise.

GB: Could you tell us about a Song for Imogene and the inspiration?

Honey’s: This is a female centric, Southern drama based off of one of our very first and most memorable short films we produced years ago. With strong notes of hope and a bone-deep identity, the film tracks dynamic characters with a chilling familiarity who have yet to be seen in mainstream media without the threat of parody. With a desire to explore the female experience but in a landscape that we feel is often overlooked or used as a caricature in service of some other plot, we built experiences that are highly personal to both of us into the script.

The film navigates complexities of emotional abuse and pregnancy trauma while championing its female driven plot. It’s our hope that shaping this emotionally generous narrative can help influence perspective and become a catalyst for change while highlighting the vast creative talent pool here in the Southeast.

GB: What is the vision for Honey Head Films in 2022 and the future?

Honey’s: We’ve hit our stride in 2022 to say the least. Coming off an epic graduation at Genesis Block, we are actively implementing our scaling model to become the region’s first female led independent film studio. With a clear focus on high-quality, socially disruptive narrative and documentary work; we already have 2 feature length motion pictures nearing the green light for production and two regional documentary projects in development.

Our vision is to continue building a sustainable investor-creator feedback cycle here in the Southeast, putting Wilmington on the map for it’s hub of homegrown talent and continuing to build infrastructure around the viable, local creative economy.

Honey Head is far more than your standard production team.
It’s a brand. A mission. A movement.

GB: How can the community support Honey Head Films?

Honey’s: Our immediate need from the community is following our Seed&Spark campaign for A Song For Imogene. This is a film-focused crowd-building site dedicated to bolstering long-term autonomy for creatives. We are just over the halfway mark of our 30 day campaign to raise $50k for gap-financing for A Song For Imogene and already over 86% to goal! Following the campaign gives our community access to the proof-of-concept trailer we’ve been using to pitch the film along with real-time updates for milestone accomplishments in getting the project off the ground.

We live in an algorithm-based society where we’re inundated with media…following the campaign gives Honey Head a direct line to our built-in audience who can champion our work for years to come. We’re developing a farm-to-table cinema experience and since launching this campaign, we’ve been able to successfully demonstrate a sudden rush of emotional buy-in from our community and far beyond which demonstrates our growing pool of capital investors that there is an audience for this movie and the high quality work Honey Head is capable of. Thank you for your support! Click here: Tiny.cc/honeyheadfeaturefilm

To support Honey Head Films reach out to the team at the links below.

Click here to support independent film: www.imogenemovie.com/support

Website: https://www.honeyheadfilms.com/

Email: hello@honeyheadfilms.com