S. Epatha Merkerson, Yolonda Ross To Star In Mmabatho Montsho’s Gothic Family Drama ‘Desmond’s Not Here Anymore’

Law & Order alumna, and Chicago Med veteran, S. Epatha Merkerson has joined the gothic family drama Desmond’s Not Here Anymore from director Mmabatho Montsho. She will star opposite Yolonda Ross (The Chi, The Get Down).  

Desmond’s Not Here Anymore is the 2019 Oscar-Qualifying HollyShorts Film Festival Screenplay Contest winning script. The annual competition is sponsored by the Seattle Film Summit, and the organization is financing the short. The film, scripted by Lindiwe Suttle Müller-Westernhagen, explores the relational interplay between a resilient daughter and her mother who is in the late stages of Alzheimer’s. The film is being produced by HollyShorts’ fledgling production company 88th Street Productions. 

S. Epatha Merkerson is best known for her award winning role portrayal of Lieutenant Anita Van Buren on NBC’s Law & Order. She has received numerous high-profile accolades for her work including an Emmy, A Golden Globe, a Screen Actors Guild Award, four NAACP Image Awards, two Obie Awards, and two Tony Award nominations. 

Lindiwe is taking inspiration from Band Aid’s director Zoe Lister-Jones and bringing together an all-female key crew to shoot this mother/daughter story. Award-winning Hungarian-born-Berlin-based Agnesh Pakodzi will be the director of photography. Shelby Ivey Christie, 2021 Forbes 30 Under 30 fashion and costume historian who focuses on Black fashion history, has also joined the team. This truly global women’s creative team has been working remotely from Johannesburg, Berlin, New York, Los Angeles, and Seattle.  

“I wanted to leave this precious story in the hands of women,” Lindiwe says. Desmond’s Not Here Anymore is scheduled to shoot in July 2021 in Seattle, Washington.

S. Epatha Merkerson is repped by ICM and McGowan Rodriguez. Lindiwe Suttle Müller-Westernhagen is repped by Alta Global Media.