There’s more to the story here, but I’m more than inclined to help keep the momentum going for actress Tiffany Toney. Her directorial debut, Bora, took several years to bring to life until its streaming releases in 2023, and she has since taken her freshman thriller straight to YouTube.
The move comes after Toney reacquired her rights from the film’s previous holder with whom she signed with at the time, which she now describes as “a really, really big mistake,” in an Instagram reel she posted on Monday, which you can view below.
“I sacrificed everything, went through my savings, made my first film, and it was going great,” she said. “I was independent, I was distributing it myself, I was working with the community, and then I was approached by a big distribution company who said they worked with Netflix, Hulu, Apple TV, all the TVs, and I signed with them.”
Toney then states she negotiated with the company from the fifteen years they initially wanted to instead five years. A year after the agreement, she says the company only paid her twenty three dollars, which she alleges in her video description “…Means they either didn’t market the product at all or they did and kept all the 💰… both violations of our contract.”
“The spend reports, the marketing reports, all of the documents that verified how much the film made were all fake. I knew it as soon as I looked at them. I was like ‘I recognize these Canva backdrops’,” she said. “So I fought to get my rights back, and once again, I am now 100% owner of my intellectual property.”
Bora was crowdfunded in 2021 and filmed in Los Angeles with a cast that joins Tiffany in the title role with lead actress Ajima Cole. The film follows a naïve young road tripper who arrives in the city in time for The Day Of The Dead. When she befriends a seductive hitchhiker, thinks take an unexpected turn and she discovers more than she bargained for.
In my review, I included the following: “Founded on strong performances, a neon-noir allure and psychedelic energy to compliment the film’s sexually-charged mystique and horror, Bora delivers a sultry, satisfying indie psychological horror with a myriad of characteristics. Topped with an adjacent queer twist, a ghoulish underpinning and salient messaging, and you get a freshman feature that delivers a great deal on all it promises…”
The YouTube upload for Bora: Director’s Cut can be found here or in the player below. Toney is also making an announcement in the coming days which is being set for November, so be sure to follow her on Instagram as well.
Enjoy Bora, and as always, viewer discretion is advised.
