Credit: Submitted photo
Twenty-five years helping kids in foster care proved the inspiration required for Maxie Rockymore to write and direct “Fresh Cut,” her new film exploring grief, loss and mental illness among Black youth debuting Saturday at the Twin Cities Black Film Festival.
Rockymore retired in 2023 from the Minnesota Department of Human Services (DHS) where she served as the state child foster care manager, overseeing 16,000 kids across Minnesota’s 87 counties and in partnership with 11 Tribal Nations.
“My second act is writing and pursuing my artistic career,” the 64-year-old said of her work today. “My dream, my passion, my gift is writing.”
“Fresh Cut” is a coming-of-age drama written for mature audiences. Buzz, played by Nate Kay, goes to work at his stepfather’s barbershop after his mother’s death. Top—the stepfather, played by Kevin West—is a proud Black man trying to take care of the teen while also painfully trying to mask the overwhelming grief and loss he feels over the death of his wife.
“Final Cut” began as a classroom assignment in 2018 after Rockymore enrolled in a scriptwriting class at FilmNorth, a St. Paul-based education space designed to nurture a diverse community of film and media artists.
To “research and observe the cadence of Black men and Black culture,” Rockymore spent a year sitting in at Urban Touch Barbers near her home in the Powderhorn Park neighborhood of Minneapolis.
“I want to focus on these young people who are struggling with mental illness and other social issues in America,” Rockymore said. “I’m concerned with the rise in suicide among the young African American community. My number-one concern is the intersection of mental illness and suicide.”
Long before her retirement last year, Rockymore was an award-winning writer of plays, screenplays and poetry. Having earned a Bachelor of Arts and a Master of Social Work to launch her career with DHS, Rockymore returned to school to invest in her “second act”—earning a Master of Fine Arts in 2015.
Rockymore met with instant success. She was a quarter-finalist in the Francis Ford Coppola America Zoetrope screenwriting competition and the winner of Outstanding Thriller at the Catalyst Festival for “Neptune Rising,” a story of a Black marine microbiologist in Alaska grieving the loss of her parents while struggling to come to terms with her secret identity as a Russian sleeper spy.
She also serves as president of the Minnesota Screenwriters Workshop. The nonprofit organization supports local film writers through script feedback groups, table readings, and contests to help writers improve their craft and gain exposure.
Following its debut at the Twin Cities Black Film Festival, “Fresh Cut” will travel to Greece, where the film audience will view the 20-minute short as part of the Levadia International Film Festival. In their invitation, the festival organizers called “Fresh Cut” “a masterpiece.”
Cynthia Moothart welcomes reader comments at cmoothart@spokesman-recorder.com.
Screen time
“Fresh Cut” screens at 1:15 p.m. Oct. 12 at the Capri Theater, 2027 W. Broadway in North Minneapolis.
Tickets can be purchased at the Twin Cities Black Film Festival website or at the door.