My name is Kenye Rollins of A Foster Film, a sociology major, former juvenile center caseworker, student president of the sociology department, and award-winning scriptwriter. I developed an early awareness of how environment and community shape identity. That perspective fuels my creative work, where I blend academic insight with a storyteller’s heart to explore generational cycles, social systems, and the lived realities of Black communities. Through film, writing, and public speaking, I aim to use narrative as a tool for reflection, empowerment, and change.

 

Through A Foster Film, my mission is to tell honest, transformative stories that give voice to communities often overlooked. My upcoming film, Not Us, exemplifies this mission: a raw, emotional ensemble drama following four teens—Jamal, Emilia, Wilbert, and Audrey—who meet at a youth rehabilitation program. Each carries a storm: bruises from a fractured home, evading ICE, struggling with identity under a conservative father, or masking privilege with pills and perfection. What begins as punishment becomes resistance—against generational trauma, broken systems, and inherited shame.

 

The title Not Us is a double entendre: a declaration from youth refusing stereotypes and a haunting question—how can this be the “land of the free”? Each character reflects systemic burdens: immigration, trauma, poverty, policing, toxic masculinity, and privilege. The script draws from real stories—kids criminalized for being poor, undocumented, quiet, loud, or Black.

 

Not Us is a cinematic case study, a mirror, and a resistance. It is a cry from youth saying, “We are not who you think we are,” and a cry to the nation: “Not us—not this country. Not this pain.” I am not making this film to prove I can—I am making it because I must.