Jean is the provider and (over)protector of her two teen children, Tamika and Tristin, and begrudgingly lives with her mother in a crowded Lawrence Heights apartment complex. Despite the kids learning to become more self-sufficient, Jean’s vision is too clouded by the past to see that they’re growing. She is haunted by violence in both their past and their present, and must help her children cope. Expertly using sound and flashbacks to construct a layered and full portrait of this woman’s life, Chapman reveals the trials and tribulations that women in Jean’s family carry with them.

Village Keeper is about a family grappling with secrets upholding domestic abuse and unresolved rage that quietly spans generations. Following a devastating tragedy, Jean relocates her children to the community housing project where she grew up, seeking refuge with their grandmother. Jean prides herself on being educated, working hard, and making it out of social housing, but when life’s precarious scale tips her fortune right back into poverty, her dream of a home with a white picket fence turns into obsession. Haunted by secrets and scars, she struggles to shield her teenagers from the harsh realities of their environment. When a citywide gun violence spree strikes close to home, Jean is propelled into action. She cleans her community of the remnants of violence, a symbolic act that reshapes her understanding of her past, her family’s hidden truths, and her resilience. As Jean grapples with the weight of trauma, the specters of domestic abuse, and mental health challenges, she embarks on a journey to break the cycle of generational pain. Alongside her quest for healing, she fiercely defends her children from a system that threatens their well-being, a while striving to find happiness and peace amidst chaos and adversity. -LEVEL FILM

Featuring a post-film Q&A with Writer/Director Karen Chapman.

Doors Open 30 Minutes Before Showtime.