Colman Domingo is putting on his producer hat…
The 51-year-old Guatemalan American actor will be executive producing Scott Aharoni and Dennis Latos’ short film Leylak.
The short, shot during the pandemic, follows an immigrant gravedigger, a frontline worker, who buries his pain in order to shelter his daughter from an unspeakable loss but learns that the only way forward is together.
Leylak made its world premiere at the Tribeca Film Festival where it won the Special Jury Prize, going on to garner top awards at international film festivals like Galway Film Fleadh in Ireland, Short Shorts Film Festival & Asia, Flickers’ Rhode Island International Film Festival, Port Townsend Film Festival, Leiden International Film Festival, Tacoma Film Festival, New York Shorts International Film Festival, and many more.
“Leylak’s setting couldn’t be more timely, but it’s the film’s piercing and honest look at loss, guilt, anguish, love and hope that make it timeless,” says Domingo. “With quiet intensity, Leylak is executed with such nuance in its portrayal of how unbearable circumstances can splinter people apart, but at the same time, bring them even stronger together.”
Domingo’s critically acclaimed film work includes If Beale Street Could Talk, Selma, Lincoln, Candyman, Without Remorse, Zola, and he was a Film Independent Spirit, NAACP, SAG and Critics Choice Award nominee for his performance in Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom. He also won the Best Supporting Actor Imagen Award for HBO’s Euphoria.
As a writer, Domingo’s plays and musicals include the Tony Award nominated Broadway musical Summer: The Donna Summer Musical and Lights Out: Nat “King” Cole. The multi-hyphenate is currently shooting season 4 of his series, Bottomless Brunch at Colman‘s for AMC, and is developing various TV, film, theater and animation projects with his production company, Edith Productions. He is currently shooting a new film called, Rustin, where he has landed his title role and set to play gay rights activist Bayard Rustin, which is the first film production from Michelle and Barack Obama’s Higher Ground.
New York-based filmmakers Aharoni and Latos directed and co-produced Leylak. The short’s story was written and co-produced by Mustafa Kaymak, the award-winning writer and producer of Green, the winner of the 2019 short film U.S. Jury Award at Sundance Film Festival.