After inheriting the family home built by her estranged grandfather, a gifted but guarded musician is summoned into a surreal musical realm where her late grandmother’s spirit compels her to confront the grief woven through her family lineage and mend a decades-old rift.
SYNOPSIS
Josephine “Josie” Samuel, a gifted but guarded musician, returns to her family’s Southern home after inheriting it from her estranged grandfather. She plans only to sell the house and move on but the place won’t let her go. The piano hums with voices, the shadows whisper, and a spectral presence begins to answer her songs.
Her estranged father, Del, arrives, reigniting old wounds of abandonment and fractured family ties. The house itself seems to demand their reckoning. That same night, Josie slips through a portal into a dazzling 1960s television variety show. There she meets the spirit of her grandmother Theresa, a luminous singer who died young, leaving the family broken. Theresa’s charge is clear: Josie must help heal the rift between her sons Del and Steve or suffer the consequences of carrying unhealed grief in her body.
Drawn deeper into a shifting world of memory, music, and ghostly performance, Josie must choose whether to flee the burden of her lineage or embrace it. The cost of refusing is steep: losing not just her family’s home, but the chance to transform generations of trauma into something whole.
What begins as a reluctant homecoming transforms into the beginnings of an odyssey to reconcile the living and the dead. NUMINA is a story about music as inheritance, the haunting weight of legacy, and the possibility of turning a house of ghosts back into a home.
“Music feels like the connective tissue I share with my grandmother”
Numina opens with the arpeggios of a song.
“There’s a stowaway in my spirit and I don’t wanna hear it…”
Once alone in the house, Josephine sits down to sing that same song. It’s been calling to her…plaguing her for months.
INSPIRATION for the numinascape
“Barbra Streissand and Judy Garland’s performance of Get Happy/Happy Days Are Here Again has lingered with me since I was a teenager. The way both songs and singers maintain their autonomy. Yet, together create something wholly new.”
“I am a Black woman. The music of my song, some sweet arpeggio of tears, is written in a minor key and I can be heard humming in the night...can be heard humming in the night...”
- Mari Evans
In Numina, we’ve created our own arrangements of It Had to Be You and Roses of Yesterday (Both of which recently entered the public domain.) Unlike the Barbra and Judy arrangement, ours is more melancholy, more wistful, more dissonant, more hungry and haunting.
For the feature movie musical we’re looking to have a blend of classic music, soul, and new songs reflecting the blend of the past, present, and future in the house.
CREATIVE TEAM
Spencer Jamison
Spencer is a Richmond, VA native whose work is rooted in care, curiosity, and community. She is a graduate of James Madison University and the Yale School of Drama MFA Acting Program, where she took part in the development process of many new works as an actor, writer, and director. As a filmmaker, Spencer crafts ensemble-driven narratives across genres, centering the humor, depth, and complexity of Black womanhood. She starred in and produced SLAVE CRY with her brother Jai Jamison, which won the 2019 Commonwealth Award for Best Short Film at the Virginia Film Festival and screened at the 2021 Pan African Film Festival among others. Her directorial debut, DAY 74, won the 2020 Curbside Shorts Film Challenge Grand Prize sponsored by Women In Film LA, IMDbPro, and ReFrame Project. She is currently developing her debut feature, an expansion of her audience award–winning romantic comedy short, AT CAPACITY, with Loni Rodgers whose past work includes PAST LIVES and THE TRAGEDY OF MACBETH. She was recently hired to direct a sci-fi romance short starring Quincy Isaiah (HBO’s WINNING TIME) and Ava McCoy (ALL AMERICAN: HOMECOMING), produced by Chisom Ude (JOY RIDE) with Inflection Point Entertainment. Spencer is a 2025 Film Independent Episodic Lab fellow, a 2025 WIF Writer Fellow, and a member of the inaugural Broadway Advocacy Coalition Artivism Fellowship cohort.
Writer/Director/Theresa
Andy Allo
Andy Allo is a Cameroonian-American chef, singer, and actress whose work bridges music, acting, and cuisine. Rooted in her heritage and informed by global experience, her creative journey is driven by authenticity and storytelling. Andy first came to prominence as a singer and guitarist with Prince’s New Power Generation, an experience that shaped her genre-blending sound and performance style. She has since released multiple projects and performed internationally, building a soulful blend of neo-soul, funk, R&B, and Afro influences that is unmistakably her own. As an actress, Andy has appeared in film and television, including Pitch Perfect 3, the Amazon Prime sci-fi series Upload, and as a voice actor in Star Wars: The Bad Batch, showcasing her versatility across genres. More recently, Andy has stepped into the culinary space as a chef and food storyteller, drawing from childhood memories of cooking alongside her mother and grandmother. Through Aköne by Chef Allo, she reimagines Cameroonian cuisine for modern tables, blending tradition with contemporary technique. Andy Allo’s work centers on representation, reinvention, and cultural connection, bringing the richness of the Cameroonian diaspora to the forefront across music, screen, and the table.
Josephine/Executive Producer
Ron Forbes
Executive Producer/Unplugged ControllerInspired by a childhood love of playing video games with director Jai Jamison, Ron Forbes has built a 15-year career spanning the games and entertainment industry, working in product leadership roles across Xbox, Riot Games, and Oculus VR. He’s passionate about the connective power of entertainment and technology to bring people and communities together and is proud to support the creative vision of Jai and Spencer. Ron currently resides in New York City.
jai jamison
Executive Producer/Unplugged ControllerJai is a writer/director from Richmond, Virginia. He was most recently an Executive Story Editor on The CW’s SUPERMAN & LOIS, where he directed episode 311 “Complications” as well as wrote and directed episode 409. In 2016, his film TRI, an action sports drama about Triathlons, led to his selection for the Shoot Magazine New Director’s Showcase. His most recent short film, SLAVE CRY, was The Commonwealth Award Winner at the 2019 Virginia FilmFestival and screened in the 2021 Pan African Film Festival. He’s also written comic books for DC Comics and Boom Studios, including CREED: THE NEXT ROUND in collaboration with LaToya Morgan, Michael B Jordan, and Outlier Society. Jai graduated from Hampton University and received his master’s in film from American University, before working in various capacities on a number of productions in Virginia including Steven Spielberg’s LINCOLN, Turn on AMC, and the Apple+ show SWAGGER. In miscellaneous facts, Jai served on the Board of Tourism for Virginia from 2018 to 2022. He was a Virginia Museum of Fine Arts Fellow.
ROMAN GIANARTHUR
ComposerRoman GianArthur is an award-winning composer and producer known for his audacious, lyrical approach to film score. From bombastic anime westerns (Netflix’s Bass Reeves) to surreal horror (Liongate’s Antebellum) to reimagined Disney classics (Lady and the Tramp), GianArthur’s signature is his soul — which he brings to bear in every project. His work spans stage and screen, including collaborations with Steven Knight (Peaky Blinders: The Redemption), Janelle Monáe (The ArchAndroid, Electric Lady), and his IDA award-winning score for HBO’s Hallowed Ground.
Nina Burnett is an experienced line producer and production manager with over 15 years of experience leading 360° marketing campaigns and short-form content. A proud Howard University alum and Chicago South Side native, she has managed high-profile marketing campaigns for EPIX, YouTube, and Apple TV+, where she currently supports original scripted series including TED LASSO, CHIEF OF WAR, SILO, and MASTERS OF THE AIR. Nina has also line produced branded content for Cantu and Redbox, as well as docu-series such as THE MAJAH HYPE SHOW for BET.com and MADE FROM SCRATCH: YOUNG M.A. Her extensive background overseeing complex productions informs her transition into producing for narrative projects. Her first producer credit, DEMO-LITION, screened at the Pan African Film Festival, Micheaux Film Festival, and Omaha Film Festival. She is passionate about developing and producing action, sci-fi and period stories that explore the Black diaspora through rich, character-driven storytelling.
Line Producer/Production ManagerNina Burnett
Julia Greer
Julia Greer is a writer, actor, producer, and founder of The Hearth, a critically acclaimed theater company dedicated to producing new plays by women and championing voices that often go unheard. Their second-ever show, ATHENA, was a New York Times Critic’s Pick named in the New York Times year-end “Unforgettable Theater Moments” list. The Hearth’s most recent season was their biggest yet, RACECAR RACECAR RACECAR garnered raves in The New Yorker, Vulture, and The New York Times and PUSH PARTY played to sold out crowds and was supported by the Will and Jada Smith Family Foundation. Her debut short, WAITING PERIOD, which she wrote, produced, and starred in won Best Short at the New Hampshire Film Festival, and the web series she wrote and produced JILL AND DILL, played at comedy film festivals all over the country. Julia’s multi-hyphenate sensibility, honed through her experience as a writer, producer, and performer on stage and on screen, shapes her approach to bringing NUMINA to life.
Producer