‘A Song for Nia’ promotional photo, featuring Tasha Holmes, who plays Nia, in the project.

The newly finished indie web series “A Song for Nia” has been making its way around Philly on a pop-up screening tour. Created by local filmmaker Eboni Zamani under her very own Pearl’s Girl Productions company, the series explores grief and inner conflict.

Based on Zamani’s own life and inspired by the women around her, “A Song for Nia” follows Nia, a young woman portrayed by Tasha Holmes, as she returns to Philly from Los Angeles for her cousin’s funeral after an act of gun violence.

Produced with support from People’s Media Fund, Scribe Video Center, and SIFT Media 215, the project is a nod to Black folks across the city. It blends our collective joys and woes into a six-episode dramedy — a genre that feels especially fitting culturally.

“That’s just the nature of the Black American experience; We just go through so much hell on a regular basis,” Zamani said. “But then it’s like it’s always just something absurd or something funny that kind of sometimes takes the steam or the pressure off of a thing.”

“A Song for Nia” is a cultural tribute, uplifting the ways Black folks find comfort and the will to live through laughter.

In a story where the loss of a loved one to gun violence could feel overwhelmingly cold, a joke about a fine cousin or paper bags at the Papi Store at any given time brings a familiar levity and a chuckle.

Gun violence, Zamani said, is an unfortunate and unavoidable reality for a good deal of Black Philadelphians. And like in real life, it impacts Nia’s entire family and circle of loved ones.

With Zamani’s careful direction, the series relies on the internal and external dynamics of its characters to make room for deeper reflection and commentary on Black cultural touchstones like homecomings, familial hierarchy, love, and, most notably, masculinity.

“I was really more interested in the character development of the story,” Zamani said.

Drawing inspiration from significant Black films like Spike Lee’s “Crooklyn” and George Tillman Jr.’s “Soul Food,” Zamani’s focus on character development reflects the times for Black folks while allowing the subject matter to become about more than tragedy alone.

The most poignant example is Ian Thomas’ portrayal of Kareem, Nia’s cousin, who could easily be read as a stereotypical aggressive, hot-headed Black man. But as the story unfolds, more layers are revealed, and we begin to see his internal struggle.

As a street dealer, with a father behind bars and his cousin newly deceased, he sees his role and mortality as the only remaining man in his family, which he feels deeply.

“I might be doing dirt, or I might have done dirt…But it all comes from a place of wanting to protect, provide, and care for my family,” Thomas said, lending more perspective to Kareem and Black men like him deemed misunderstood.

This becomes a pivotal reframing of Kareem’s stubborn ways, dissolving displays of overbearingness into acts of love and survival. It furthers Zamani’s mission to let the complexities of her characters shine through.

Thomas’ portrayal is a standout, urging viewers to see beyond their own assumptions about who people are — even within the community. Zamani spoke to GIH about this intentionality.

“Borrowing from Black feminist women around the importance of humanizing Black men and them getting to a place where their masculinity is not defined by White supremacist, patriarchal masculinity, but also to the safety and development of our communities.”

Thomas said “A Song for Nia” is needed media in today’s landscape, saying it can be therapeutic for those who see it and find similarity in experience.

“It literally saves our community,” Thomas said. Other viewers and cast members agree that “A Song for Nia” is an important display of why independent film is essential.

Local film enthusiast Stephanye Watts saw the full series — a one-time opportunity during its debut screening at The Fallser Club in East Falls. She spoke to Zamani’s portrayal of Black folks’ use of humor, which she said captures the community’s “real essence.”

She points to more examples of laughter and joy as collective resistance, like Black Twitter tweeting memes and gifs in times of national Black uprisings in 2020.

“Somebody got to tell our stories on the ground, and I just hope that Eboni just continues to do that because it’s really making an impact,” she said.

After viewing March’s iMPeRFeCT Gallery screening, where half the series was shown, Lunise Cerin from West Philly told GIH, “I love a film that is a love letter to your community… when you can feel that a filmmaker loves their people and is using their camera to love on their people.”

She continued, “It felt so specific to Philadelphia in really subtle ways… the camera work, the music, the casting… just really small things that can really introduce you to a place and introduce you to a people.”

Mt. Airy’s CJ The Poet attended the same March screening. She said the series underscores how hyperlocal authenticity in independent films reveals what’s missing from mainstream storytelling.

“We need to see the other side of the story… [independent films] are so real. You feel that… and you relate to it. And it might be who you see in the morning when you get up every day.”

Leading lady Tasha Holmes called the theme of grief a timely one, saying, “Grief is not linear… It’s one of those things that never really goes away for those experiencing it.”

Ultimately, the message Zamani hopes the project will leave on viewers is one of “how we get back to love, how we get back to conflict resolution, how we find ways to navigate the realness of life that we’re dealing with.”

“Love is the goal,” she said. “But we don’t get there without resolving issues.”

While “A Song for Nia” has had its final local screening for now, the series sprints its way into the national film festival scene, with its newly announced first stop on June 6 at the 16th Annual Charlotte Black Film Festival.

Note: While Germantown Info Hub and Resolve Philly are supported by People’s Media Fund, they had no involvement in the production of this article.

Rasheed Z. Ajamu is a Germantown-born and raised Black journalist, reporting from a place-based lens to see how things affect life in Germantown. They strive to preserve the stories of Black natives in an ever-changing Philadelphia and Germantown social landscape.