"A REAL ONE" TO COMPETE FOR OSCAR QUALIFICATION AT DANCES WITH FILMS FESTIVAL 2023

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“A Real One” a compelling drama about testing the bonds of friendship, will compete at this year’s Dances With Films (DWF) Festival, June 22-July 2, 2023 at the TCL Chinese 6 Theatres in Hollywood.

Written and directed by McKenzie Chinn and set in Chicago’s south side, “A Real One ” follows the “us against the world” friendship of high school seniors Lauren (Eris Baker, “This Is Us”) and Keisha (Ireon Roach “The 4400,” “Knives and Skin”). The bonds of their friendship are tested after Lauren reveals a tightly-held secret to Keisha, and the two must take matters into their own hands, navigating a landscape where the only thing they can truly count on is each other.

Also featured in the short are Matthew Amador (“Station 11”) and Bridget Frances Harris..

The film was funded through a grant from the Bentonville Film Foundation and NBCUniversal. “A Real One” will be presented at this year’s Bentonville Film Festival where Chinn is an alumni and was an inaugural “See It, Be It” Filmmaker Fellow, as part of a showcase of short film screenings and conversations with emerging and established filmmakers that have been awarded funding and production support from valued BFF partners and global brands, Coca Cola, M&M”S®, and NBCUniversal.

“A Real One” was also an official selection at the Pan African Film Festival in Los Angeles earlier this year.

Chinn, a writer, director, and actor based in Chicago, is a 2021 Sundance Screenwriters Lab and Directors Lab Fellow, where she developed the feature version of “A Real One.” Her film “Olympia” (writer, producer, actor) premiered at the 2018 LA Film Festival, and won the Best Narrative Feature Audience Award at the 2019 Bentonville Film Festival. She was recently named IFA Chicago’s inaugural Breakthrough Voice Award recipient.

As an actor she has played recurring and guest star roles on ABC’s Will Trent, Fox’s The Big Leap, and others, and has appeared onstage with Steppenwolf Theatre, Goodman Theatre, The Second City, Woolly Mammoth, The Studio Theatre, and others.

She earned her MFA at The Theatre School at DePaul.

“A Real One” will screen as part of the Competition Shorts Block 3 on Saturday, June 24th at 5:00 pm at the TCL Chinese Theatres in Hollywood. All tickets are $19 prior to June 22; thereafter all tickets are $22. Tickets may be purchased by clicking on the TICKET button on the website at https://danceswithfilms.com/a-real-one/