AN EPISODE OF THE WEB SERIES NO PRIDE IN DEATH

NO PAIN,
NO GAIN

Created by Cristyn Allen-Steward
Written by Jarvis B. Manning Jr.
AMACH! Productions

$5,000 goal · October 14–November 12, 2026

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VISUAL REFERENCE Visual inspiration: a couple sharing a warm embrace

THE BEGINNING

BACKGROUND

In 2011, a close friend and influential drag legend in Columbus passed suddenly. The funeral was a display of his full erasure. Drag friends were forced to sit in a specific area, and the pastor that exiled him from his church did the eulogy.

My response was to create a story about queer life, full of love and acceptance. A story where friends of the deceased reclaim their friend’s memory with courage and love.

VISUAL REFERENCE

Mother and daughter seated across from each other in a diner

STORY

LOGLINE

A mother’s relationship with her masc daughter reaches a breaking point when her daughter proposes to the woman of her dreams.

SYNOPSIS

Love, family and the cost of conditional acceptance.

Tarron, also known as “TT,” is ready to build a life with Franseen, the woman who took her breath away after taking the winning point at bar trivia. But her mother, Debra, refuses to accept her sexuality or their relationship.

As the couple falls in love, marries, and prepares to welcome a child, TT hopes Debra will finally choose to love her fully. When TT dies during childbirth, Franseen grieves her wife, while Debra confronts her refusal to fully accept her daughter. Surrounded by TT’s chosen family and newborn daughter, Debra has to reckon with her decisions and begin to honor TT’s life and family.

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CHARACTERS

Character images are visual references, not casting announcements.

VISUAL REFERENCE

Tarron — TT (30s)

A soft-spoken, loyal, and somewhat clumsy masculine-of-center lesbian who wears her heart on her sleeve.

VISUAL REFERENCE Visual reference for Franseen

Franseen (30s)

A confident, witty, and deeply loving femme lesbian who falls in love with TT over their shared love of bar trivia.

VISUAL REFERENCE Visual reference for Debra

Debra (60s)

TT’s mother, a woman steeped in conservative, heteronormative values. Her love is real but painfully conditional.

THE LOOK AND FEEL

Visual references for the episode’s mood, lighting, and atmosphere.

REPRESENTING THE SOLEMNITY OF ISOLATION AND DISCONNECT BETWEEN MOTHER AND DAUGHTER

A woman reflected in a window, representing isolation and disconnection

VISUAL REFERENCE

REPRESENTING THE WARMTH OF LOVE AND CHOSEN COMMUNITY, LIKE AN OASIS IN A DESERT

A warm, intimate moment representing love and chosen community

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WRITER’S STATEMENT

BEHIND THE STORY

CREATIVE TEAM

Cristyn Allen-Steward

CREATOR & DIRECTOR

Cristyn Allen-Steward is an award-winning filmmaker dedicated to elevating Black and queer voices. She is the founder of the Columbus Black International Film Festival and a Silver Telly Award-winning producer.

Read Cristyn’s full bio

Cristyn Allen-Steward is an award-winning filmmaker dedicated to elevating Black and queer voices through films like Blue Rebellion, Holy Hustle, A Family Affair, and We Fight We Love. As a producer on the move in 2024, Cristyn snagged a Silver Telly Award for the short Showdown in Amherst. Other credits include The Girl, the Goon and the Goblin, River, and The Many Shitty Lives of Jacques Hunt. Founder of the Columbus Black International Film Festival, she has earned the Spirit of Columbus Award and grants from numerous organizations throughout Ohio.

Jarvis B. Manning Jr.

WRITER

Jarvis B. Manning Jr. is a Houston-born performer and writer with Broadway, film, and television credits. No Pain, No Gain will be his first produced writing project.

Read Jarvis’s full bio

Jarvis B. Manning Jr. is a native of Houston, Texas. His career thus far has included Broadway, film, and television, with credits in projects like Law & Order (“Wicked Game”), Michael, Motown the Musical on Broadway, Ain’t Too Proud: The Life and Times of The Temptations on Broadway, Some Like It Hot on Broadway, and the short film The Purgatory of Ghosts and Grief.

Jarvis met filmmaker and producer Demi Lashawn on the set of The Purgatory of Ghosts and Grief, where Demi noticed a very inquisitive creative in Jarvis. Demi then pushed Jarvis to do more writing of his own. Storytelling has been Jarvis’s passion for many years. Through his photographic experience at Brain Art Photography, he has grown to love the art of “frozen moments in time.” Through writing, he is being challenged to combine all of his experience to build exciting and familiar worlds and characters.

No Pain, No Gain is the first work of Jarvis’s to be produced. He is beyond grateful for filmmaker Cristyn Allen-Steward’s vision and for her allowing him to pen work in her upcoming series.

Demi Lashawn Keilu

PRODUCER

Demi Lashawn Keilu is a creative director, filmmaker, writer, and architect. His producing work with Pet Elephant explores loss, memory, and Black interiority.

Read Demi’s full bio

Demi Lashawn Keilu is a creative director, filmmaker, writer, and architect whose film work with his studio, Pet Elephant, has earned recognition across the independent short film circuit. As a producer, Demi has led the development of short films with a combined budget exceeding $100,000, with projects that have received over two dozen festival invitations. His narrative short The Purgatory of Ghosts and Grief alone garnered more than half a dozen festival selections and was praised for its poetic exploration of loss, memory, and Black interiority.

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