Still Water,
Soft Bones.
A feature screenplay by Sunshine Sunni Shabaz — an intimate meditation on family, inheritance, and the courage it takes to remain present and be seen.
After years away in Los Angeles, Sahsha returns to upstate New York to help care for her grandmother — and finds the distance she built between herself and the truth beginning to close.
After years away in Los Angeles, Sahsha returns to upstate New York to help care for her grandmother. Reentering a home shaped by love, silence, and unfinished conversations, she finds herself navigating the fragile dynamics between her mother Deena and her sister Aaliyah while confronting the truths she has long kept hidden about her life away.
Through quiet moments with her grandmother Nan and the support of a small local community, Sahsha begins to risk a new kind of honesty. When unexpected news of an acting role arrives under her own name, joy and grief collide — inviting her to step fully into the life she has been quietly fighting to claim.
An intimate meditation on family, inheritance, and the courage it takes to remain present and be seen.
Synopsis courtesy of stillwatersoftbonesfilm.com
Four women. One house that remembers.
The eldest daughter, returned from Los Angeles. An aspiring actress carrying the weight of secrets and the quiet hope of being truly seen. She moves through the house like someone relearning the language of home.
The grandmother — the still center of the family. Quiet, but not diminished. Her presence holds the house together even as time asks more of her. She sees what others cannot say.
Sahsha's mother. A woman shaped by duty and silence, whose love expresses itself in the things she does rather than the words she speaks. The distance between her and her daughters is measured in unfinished sentences.
Sahsha's younger sister. She stayed. That single fact contains multitudes: resentment, loyalty, love, and a quiet pride she rarely lets show.
What the film is reaching toward.
Sunshine
Sunni Shabaz
"I began writing Still Water Soft Bones while thinking about the quiet ways people learn to survive — the smaller adjustments that happen slowly over time. The ways we edit ourselves in certain rooms."
Sunshine Sunni Shabaz is a writer, performer, and multidisciplinary artist whose work explores themes of identity, belonging, and the emotional landscapes of family. Her storytelling is rooted in intimate, character-driven narratives that examine the quiet ways people learn to survive and the courage it takes to become visible.
Drawing from personal experience and the communities that shaped her, Shabaz creates stories that center tenderness, resilience, and chosen family. Still Water Soft Bones is her debut feature screenplay and reflects her commitment to telling deeply human stories that exist at the intersection of vulnerability and strength.
On the slate.
A film about legacy deserves a future.
We are seeking financing partners, executive producers, grants, and lab submissions for Still Water, Soft Bones. Production opportunities are reserved first for trans women of color and queer creatives of color.