At a moment when independent filmmakers are increasingly finding new ways to create, finance, and bring their work directly to audiences, Atlanta filmmaker Kerri Garrett is carving out a path of her own.
Her newest short film, A Westside Love Story, will make its Southeast U.S. premiere as an official selection of the 39th annual Out On Film Festival, where it will screen on Thursday, October 1, 2026, at 7:00 p.m as part of the festival’s Queer Georgia Peaches: Local Shorts program. The film is also a recipient of Out On Film’s Filmmaker Fund, which supports Georgia filmmakers bringing distinctly Southern queer stories to the screen.
For Garrett, the film represents more than another directing credit. It reflects a growing generation of independent filmmakers who are refusing to wait for traditional industry permission to tell the stories they believe deserve to exist.
“Creating my own work gives me the agency, and honestly, the audacity, to take up space and say what I want to say,” said Garrett. “As independent filmmakers, especially at a time when so many of our voices and stories are being marginalized or banned, it’s important that we recognize the power we have to create our own opportunities. So often, we’re looking for someone else to give us a way in, when really, we already hold the keys to the stories we want to tell. We don’t always have to wait for permission to create the worlds we want to see.”
A director, actor, and writer, based in Atlanta, Garrett creates films that explore Black life across the diaspora through queer perspectives, movement, and community-rooted storytelling. Through her production company, House of Productions, she has developed narrative films and branded storytelling while building an artistic practice that allows her to move between filmmaking, performance and producing.
A Westside Love Story brings that vision home to Atlanta.
Set against the streets of Atlanta’s historic West End, the film follows Tatum, a Clark Atlanta University student born with HIV, and Zion, a nonbinary Spelman College documentary filmmaker, after a late-night search for food sends them to the West End Mall’s American Deli. Their paths collide over a shared wing order, and when a stolen bike and missed shuttle leave them without a ride back to campus, an ordinary food run evolves into a surreal journey through the Westside and an unexpected first date.
Through their growing connection, A Westside Love Story explores identity, intimacy, HIV advocacy and the possibility of finding love in unexpected places, while placing Black queer joy, HBCU culture and Atlanta itself at the center of the story.
“We need more Black queer love stories,” Garrett said. “We’re living through such a turbulent time, and I wanted A Westside Love Story to feel like a safe space where audiences could laugh, feel, fall in love, and maybe learn something along the way. The film also gave me an opportunity to destigmatize HIV and show people thriving with HIV through love, joy, and possibility rather than the trauma we so often see attached to their stories.”
Garrett not only directs the film but stars as Tatum opposite Suni MF Solomon as Zion. The film was written by NOVA CYPRESS BLACK and produced by Morgan B. Powell and Tré Hazelwood, with cinematography by Sade Ndya. House of Productions and Hazelwood Productions serve as the production companies. 1. AWLS Info Sheet
The film’s distinctly Atlanta setting is central to its identity. From the Atlanta University Center to the West End, A Westside Love Story uses the city not simply as a backdrop, but as part of the world in which Tatum and Zion’s connection is allowed to unfold.
From Atlanta to Washington, D.C.
Following its Out On Film appearance, A Westside Love Story will continue its festival journey in Washington, D.C., where it is among the finalists for The Power of the Story: Emerging Filmmaker Competition during the March On! Festival.
The finalist screening will take place Saturday, October 3, from 12:30–4 p.m. at the Myrtilla Miner Building in Washington, D.C. The program will showcase six short films selected from nearly 100 submissions by student and emerging filmmakers from across the country, with the competition highlighting filmmakers using narrative and documentary storytelling to explore social justice from new perspectives.
For Garrett, each stop expands the audience for a story that began in Atlanta while demonstrating what is possible when filmmakers take ownership of the narratives they want to put into the world.
