Gia Foretia creates sustainable plan for Black Indie film success

Gia Foretia did not wait for Hollywood to call.

The independent filmmaker wrote the script, secured funding, built the production infrastructure, and successfully debuted her short film, “Blind Justice,” in Houston, marking its second premiere at Blank Canvas Event Space in Downtown Houston.

The event, hosted by Gia’s World Studios, is a cultural conversation about mental health, domestic violence, perseverance, and what it looks like when a Black woman refuses to let anyone else tell her story.

Foretia, the firstborn of four children to Cameroonian parents, did not set out to be a filmmaker. She graduated from Penn State University with a degree in biology, driven by the expectation common in many African households that, as the eldest, you set the example.

“I’m not happy with this degree,” Foretia recalled thinking at her own graduation while classmates celebrated around her. “It was for my family.”

The emptiness followed her into adulthood. She landed a stable job, her own apartment, her own car, and still felt hollow.

“Why do I still feel empty?” she said.

The answer came when she finally admitted what she had suppressed for years. She needed to write.

Foretia returned to a story she had been carrying since college, this time with discipline. She joined Women in Film and Video, one of the most active independent film communities in D.C., worked weekend production sets without pay while keeping her full-time job, and read every filmmaking book she could find.

“Read every book you can get your hands on,” she said. “Everything, mood boards, synopsis treatments, budget plans. Somebody has already done it and put it in a book.”

That preparation paid off. Foretia secured a $33,000 grant from an arts gallery by submitting a polished script, a treatment, a synopsis, and an itemized budget.

“When you have a polished script, it’s like a million dollars,” she said. “You will get very far.”

The result is “Blind Justice,” a 24-minute narrative drama set in early 2000s Washington, D.C. Brianna, a quiet woman in her early 30s born with glaucoma, is trying to escape the drug trade to pursue her dream of becoming a writer. Her greatest obstacle is her father. Foretia plays Brianna herself.

The drug trade, she explained, is a metaphor for any culture that demands conformity.

“You’re in a culture that’s very strong,” Foretia said. “They want you to go down a certain path, and if you try to veer off, there’s going to be a lot of pushback. You have to stand your ground.”

According to the USC Annenberg Inclusion Initiative’s 2025 report, only three Black directors worked on Hollywood’s top 100 films in 2024, down from 10 in 2023. Representation behind the camera has barely moved since 2007. For Black women, the pipeline is thinner still.

Foretia is not waiting for it to open.

She established an LLC, secured nonprofit fiscal sponsorship, trademarked her concept, and copyrighted her scripts through the Library of Congress. Her projects have screened on Apple TV, BET+, American Public Television, and PBS, and have been placed in the London Global Film Awards, Urban Mediamakers Film Festival, and San Diego Black Film Festival.

“This is your story,” she said. “You don’t know if you’re going to get this chance again.”

In her corner is Dr. Edna Njoku Frenchwood, CEO of ChiChi Movies Inc. and founder of the Flix Reps Masterclass, an educational platform that trains creatives in the business side of film. Originally from Nigeria, Frenchwood built her company, turning a $5,000 investment into $15,000 in film profit. 

She has since produced nine independent films and is pursuing her Ph.D. in Curriculum and Education at Liberty University. A TEDx speaker and best-selling author, she brings both personal experience and industry expertise to her mentorship work. She recognized something distinct in Foretia early on.

“She can read, and she can take the time to dig into what’s needed,” Frenchwood said. “As a young Black woman, she went and told our story in the way it fits us.”

Frenchwood emphasized that what Foretia represents extends well beyond one film.

“When we tell our stories, it really doesn’t matter the angle,” she said. “It matters that we have a voice. Film, TV, and media are a platform for a voice for us as a people.”