18-year-old Actor Skylan Brooks (“Ra-Ra” from The Get Down) will star in the crime-drama Nēar. The film Nēar follows 17-year-old, Julian, played by Skylan Brooks upon his escape from the hospital on Christmas Eve, which is literally the last day of his life, he seeks to reconcile with his estranged father. Julian suffers from a rare disease “Danon”, a heart condition that kills boys between the ages of 7-17 in months or as little as a day. It will be filmed in one take in the formerly bankrupt city of Stockton, California. One of their goals is to use proceeds in order to create an endowment for Danon Disease Research at the University of Colorado.
The film is written and will be produced by Filmmaker Korstiaan Vandiver, known for developing 12: The Tamir Rice Story.
“This film is more than just a crime drama”, Vandiver said. “It is also a bit of a teenage love story, one, Native American, the other African American. This is the story of what happens when the systematically abused bond over a common disparity and Skylan Brooks is one of this generation’s greatest young actors with the chops to pull it off.”