Preserves
a feature film by Micah Ariel Asante
Meet Our Team
Writer/Director
Micah Ariel Watson
Micah Ariel Asante (formerly Micah Ariel Watson) is an award-winning filmmaker, playwright, and screenwriter whose work explores the Black imagination, love, and the sacred. A 2020 MFA graduate of NYU Tisch, Micah’s acclaimed play Alaiyo won the Kennedy Center Lorraine Hansberry Playwriting Award and several other honors, with its Chicago premiere at Definition Theatre in 2023. Her play Canaan was produced in both Wichita and Kansas City in 2022. She is the creator of the hit web series Black Enough, streaming on YouTube. Micah’s feature directorial debut, Preserves, has received support from the SFFILM Westridge Grant and Gotham Week Project Market. With familial roots in Kansas for more than a century, she is excited to explore the rich beauty of Black people in the Midwest and beyond. micaharielwatson.com
Producer
Terrance Daye
Terrance Daye is an award winning poet and filmmaker from Long Island, New York. His creative work explores alienated characters longing for meaningful connection. Terrance received his BA from Morehouse College and his MFA in filmmaking at NYU Tisch. Terrance is a two-time Spike Lee Production Fund recipient, a 2023 NewFest New Voices grantee, the recipient of the 2020 NewFest Emerging Black LGBTQ+ Filmmaker Award and the 2020 Outfest Programming Award for Emerging Talent. His film -Ship: A Visual Poem was awarded a Short Film Jury Award for U.S. Fiction at the 2020 Sundance Film Festival and the Industry Jury Award at TheWrap’s 2020 ShortList Film Festival. Terrance has participated in the Sundance Ignite Program, Episodic Labs and Film Independent’s Project Involve. Terrance's highly anticipated animated short film, Pritty, continues to gain national attention and support. His forthcoming feature-film Mandingo was selected top 10 in 2023's AT&T Untold Stories Competition. Terrance currently writes for the BET+ comedy “The Ms. Pat Show” and previously wrote on the forthcoming NETFLIX drama, “Forever” by Mara Brock Akil.
Producer
Joshua Elias Palmer
Joshua Elias Palmer is a producer and filmmaker focused on exploring the depth of human connection, memory, and intimacy. Josh has two independent feature films as a producer in post-production, Inter-State and King of Thieves. He is co-producing his first international film, Three Days 1/3, a co-production among Palestine, Lebanon, and Belgium, for director Rakan Mayasi. He has been developing Preserves with director Micah Ariel Watson. The project is the recipient of an SFFILM Award and was invited to Gotham Week. Micah and Josh’s webseries, Black Enough participated in the Tribeca Film Festivals Creators Market. After studying with Kevin Jerome Everson at the University of Virginia, he was one of ten filmmakers selected by master filmmaker Béla Tarr to participate in his directing intensive, where Béla produced his short, “Coda”. He is in post-production on his debut directorial feature, The Eye.
Producer
Doron JéPaul
Doron JéPaul is a Creative Architect focused on innovative and thought-provoking stories that shift the entertainment climate. His production company Thermostat Media specializes in producing both scripted and unscripted content. Doron JéPaul received his MFA from NYU’s Graduate Acting program and has starred on Broadway in Aaron Sorkin’s To Kill A Mockingbird, The Piano Lesson starring Samuel L. Jackson and recently can be seen in Kenny Leon’s revival of Our Town featuring Jim Parsons, Katie Holmes, and Zoey Deutsch. Behind the scenes, Doron serves as a Producer and script consultant for Film and Television with clientele ranging from New York, LA, and the greater Southwest region. His independent feature, Ben And Suzanne, a Reunion in 4 Parts, premiered at 2024 SXSW in the Feature Narrative Competition. His recent credits include Self//Tape in association with CineReach LTD and the independent pilot, Close Talkers. Doron uses his wide variety of artistic talents as a vehicle for expanding the joy, curiosity and imagination of art in every story.
Producer
Valerie Edwards
A native Houstonian, Valerie C. Edwards is a graduate of both Stanford University (BA, International Relations; Phi Beta Kappa) and of the UCLA School of Law. She worked as an M&A attorney at Sullivan and Cromwell in Los Angeles before moving to Wichita, Kansas with her husband and three sons, where she lived for 22 years until a new opportunity took her family to the Washington, D.C. area. Her volunteer positions have included serving on the Executive Boards of the Wichita Symphony, the Junior League of Pasadena (CA), the Assistance League of Wichita, St. James Episcopal Church (Pasadena, CA), St. James Episcopal Church (Wichita, KS), and the Women’s Association of the Wichita Symphony (WAWS). Valerie has also served as the President of WAWS and has volunteered extensively at Wichita Collegiate School. She is currently a Grow Kansas Film Advisory Member and part of the Tallgrass Film Alliance.