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DARK SKY CITY

Road movie - Development 2021

An upbeat, African-American travel vlogger finds himself on the run from violent drug dealers when he unwittingly becomes a drug mule after giving a ride to a socially awkward hitchhiker.

- Year of production
- 2021
- Genres
- Road movie, Thriller, Drama
- Countries
- USA
- Languages
- ENGLISH
- Budget
- 0.6 - 1 M$
- Duration
- 80 mn
- Writer(s)
- Christian STIRLING
- Producer(s)
- Mel SCHINKEL (STIRLING PICTURES), Christian STIRLING (STIRLING PICTURES)
- Synopsis
- DeShawn is an African American travel vlogger with a YouTube channel called Driving With DeShawn. His latest episode will document his trip from Santa Monica, California to Flagstaff, Arizona (AKA, Dark Sky City) and showcase the tourist attractions Flagstaff has to offer for visitors. He also has personal reasons for visiting as he hasn’t been there since he was a child.
  
  On the way to Flagstaff, DeShawn picks up a socially awkward hitchhiker, Justin, who needs a ride to Needles, California. After dropping off Justin at his destination, DeShawn finds a bag left behind in his car containing a large amount of drugs. Too afraid to go to the police for fear of racial discrimination, DeShawn disposes of the drugs and continues on to Flagstaff.
  
  Once in Flagstaff, DeShawn continues producing content for his YouTube channel by reviewing tourist destinations and visiting his childhood home. On occasion he feels like he is being followed or watched however he continues creating content thinking he is just being paranoid. His paranoia becomes founded when he finds his car and hotel room have been broken into. When nothing personal was taken, he realizes someone is looking for the drugs he discarded. Despite this dangerous complication, he decides to finish recording his YouTube episode.
  
  During a tourist activity, DeShawn is approached by drug dealers looking for their drugs. When he reveals he doesn’t have them they tell him he has 24 hours to either retrieve the drugs from where he disposed of them or come up with the money to pay for them. When DeShawn returns to the disposal site, the drugs are gone. With time running out and not having the money to pay for the drugs, DeShawn decides to flee back to Los Angeles.
  
  When DeShawn arrives in Los Angeles, the drug dealers are waiting for him. With DeShawn unable to provide the drugs or pay the money, the drug dealers decide to kill him. DeShawn flees through the streets of his neighborhood and after barely escaping from his pursuers, he decides to risk going to the police now that his situation has gotten out of hand.
  
  While recording his final segment, it is accidentally revealed that DeShawn has staged the entire criminal element of his story in order to create a viral episode for his YouTube channel. DeShawn and his colleagues are killed when they resist being robbed by street thugs who want to rob him of his camera equipment.