In FAITH BY FIRE, Faith is baptized by a charismatic Pastor and becomes very involved in the church. The Pastor rewards her baptismal bravery with a driving lesson that devolves into an inappropriate physical betrayal that sends Faith into a crisis of faith and leads to an act of revenge.
In FAITH BY FIRE, young Faith is inspired to invite Jesus Christ into her heart as her Lord and Savior and requests baptism. Her Mother, although surprised and skeptical, agrees to the baptism as she thinks it will cure Faith’s fascination with fire. The girl likes to play with fire. Faith is baptized by a charismatic Pastor and becomes very involved with the church. Although she almost drowns during the baptism—she survives it and thrives in the church. When Faith’s mother is delayed picking her up, the Pastor agrees to drive her home and rewards her baptismal bravery with a driving lesson against his wife’s wishes.
The driving lesson is fun at first as Faith takes control of the wheel. The lesson quickly devolves into a different kind of lesson—a dark & inappropriate physical betrayal that sends Faith into a crisis of faith as she questions everything, especially the church. She sinks into a depression and struggles with conflicting feelings about her love for God/her spiritual awakening vs. her anger with her pastor and confusion with the lack of protection from the church.
Ultimately, she goes to the church hall, knocks over the candles that flank the crucified Jesus—and sets the Church on fire. She pulls the fire alarm and as the pastor emerges, he and Faith share a look of dark understanding. Faith turns and walks into the baptismal lake while the Pastor & Vacation Bible School students watch the church burn.
Tamika is a Virginia native with a BA in Performing Arts & Theatre from American University & Howard University, with additional training at the NY Film Academy and AFI's Directing Workshop for Women Fellowship. A multihyphenate writer-director-producer and Member of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (Short Films Branch), she has been recognized by some of Hollywood's most competitive directing programs — including the Disney Directing Program, Series Fest Shondaland Directors Mentorship Program, CBS Director's Initiative, and Starz/AWD Creative Leadership Program for TV Directing. She created the Commercial Directors Diversity Program (CDDP) for the Directors Guild of America and AICP, and previously worked at the Academy developing the Gold program.
Her debut screenplay, Jar by the Door, was a Sundance Finalist and won the Gordon Parks Indie Film Award. She has earned numerous fellowships including the ABC/Walt Disney Screenwriting Fellowship, Guy Hanks & Marvin Miller Fellowship, and CBS Director's Initiative. Her short Hope aired on all major networks, and her feature Last Life is on Tubi TV. She produced the Tribeca Audience Award-winning documentary Ferguson Rises (PBS/Amazon Prime).
Tamika founded Make A Film Foundation (MAFF), a non-profit granting film wishes to children with serious or life-threatening illnesses, producing 4 award-winning narrative shorts and 100+ short docs. She served as writer/Supervising Producer on Monogamy (Amazon/ALLBLK) and showrunner for Effie T. Brown/Gamechanger Films.
Her short Superman Doesn't Steal, which she wrote, directed, produced and stars in, won the NAACP Image Award for Outstanding Short Form and has screened at 80+ festivals. The project has been accepted into Dan Lin's RISE Fellowship, Gotham's Shorts-to-Features Program, and reached the 2nd round of Sundance Screenwriting Labs.
Currently, Tamika is developing her one-hour crime drama pilot Black, White & Blue, a Page to Proof Finalist, and her latest short Doom Scroll, made during the Rideback RISE Fellowship, is now making its festival run.
Bravemaker Film Festival- Pitchfest- Winner 2024
Carol Ann Shine - Producer
Erin G. Wesley - Cinematographer
