Treatment

Shevorn Providence is a single mother of four girls living in a basement apartment in Brownsville, Brooklyn. She is on public assistance and unable to work because her ten year old daughter Tatianna is undergoing treatment for a medulloblastoma brain tumor. TATI is a raw look into the extraordinary journey of this family and its matriarch, as she navigates the city, health services, and single motherhood.

While Tati is in and out of the hospital, Shevorn prioritizes Tati’s artistic expression. She carves out time for Tati to cultivate her talent and creativity with Angelight Films, a non-profit production company that gives kids with brain tumors the chance to shine by creating their own short film. This is how they met Director/Producer Amir Arison, who in addition to documenting their personal and profound journey, guided Tati to write and star in her award winning Angelight short film, Tati’s Fashion Show. This creative journey immerses them all into a process that brings unexpected blessings, while providing an escape and contrast from the daily challenges that otherwise surround them.

The documentary gives viewers a proximity to the unique grit and determination of a mother feeding and raising her four girls, trying to give them the time and attention they need, while still finding the necessary strength to survive. We sense their physical fatigue traversing New York City through a pandemic, complicated by inclement weather, and lack of resources. We also feel Shevorn’s contagious love for her daughters. It’s a heavy life that is brightened by Shevorn’s dynamic resourcefulness.

As we take this journey with Shevorn and her daughters, an American picture emerges. A picture that sheds light on the challenges faced in our current socio-economic and healthcare systems. The themes of this documentary weave together, organically born from Shevorn’s real time experience and reactions, as three years of life unfold. We watch Tati through a mother’s eyes. As Shevorn often says, her survival mantra, “I just go with the flow.”

STAGE OF PRODUCTION

We have documented over a 1,000 hours of intimate footage of Tatianna, Shevorn and their family through hospital visits, treatments, birthdays, holidays, meeting favorite actress Raven Symone, rapper 6ix9ine, attending New York Fashion Week, their family’s visit to Hole-In-the-Wall-Gang camp, their first time traveling overseas to meet the Jamaican side of Tati’s family, and of course culminating with the making of TATI’S FASHION SHOW.

We have continued to document the effects the coronavirus pandemic has had on their life from hospital visits to the kids being home from school, as well as the overall change in zeitgesit, BLM, policing in their neighborhood, and the election cycle. Through all the changes, our story remains one of hope, optimism, and singularly focused on a mother fighting in every way for her children, and her daughter’s survival.

We are now ready to enter Post Production.