These teenagers are using science for good. Netflix has announced that it’s pairing up with Spike Lee’s production company to release a feature-length adaptation of Stefon Bristol and Fredrica Bailey’s award-winning short film, See You Yesterday, about a pair of young geniuses who create a time machine to stop an act of police brutality.
The film stars Eden Duncan-Smith as Claudette, also called CJ, and Danté Crichlow as Sebastian. They’re two Brooklyn-based science geeks with high aspirations — CJ wants to be an astrophysicist, and Sebastian’s goal is to register 200 patented inventions. However, after CJ’s brother, Calvin, is wrongfully killed by a police officer, the teens put their minds together and invent a time machine so they can go back set things right.
Spike Lee & @StefonBristol have teamed up for “See You Yesterday,” a genre-blending drama that inventively utilizes time-travel to examine the urgent issue of police brutality. Eden Duncan-Smith and Danté Crichlow play scientific geniuses in the 2019 release #NetflixNewsWeek pic.twitter.com/Lx0aasd666
— See What’s Next (@seewhatsnext) December 12, 2018
See You Yesterday started out as a short film written by Bristol and Bailey, who wrote the script together when they were graduate students at NYU. The short film won an award for the Best HBO Short Film at Martha’s Vineyard, and was a finalist for the HBO Short Film Competition at the American Black Film Festival (you can currently watch it on Max Go, CineMax’s online platform).
In an interview with Broadway World, Bristol said he started working on the story after Mike Brown and Eric Gardner were killed by police officers in 2014. He wanted to continue the conversation about police brutality, using a science fiction lens.
“See You Yesterday is genre-blending and entertaining” Bailey said. “But it also brings attention to the very real issue of police brutality. And it does it through the eyes of two young amazing black scientific geniuses. I’m excited to see such unique characters on screen.”
The film is set to come out sometime in 2019.