Baby Tooth

An ostracized young man faces his past when he revisits his rural Florida hometown to provide caregiving support for the family he left behind before they reach their breaking point.

Directed by Drew Lewis Brown
Filming in October 2025

Synopsis | When Jude returns to his conservative Florida hometown to care for his ailing grandmother, Frances, he must confront his unresolved struggles with identity and masculinity. As Frances faces the inevitability of her mortality, she retreats into vivid fantasies of being a guest conductor on the 1960s music variety show she endlessly replays. Tensions rise between Jude and his mother, Connie, who struggles with fears about her son’s safety and the realities of her mother’s decline, while Jude’s sister, Apple, dreams of escaping their small town to pursue her ambitions but feels torn between her aspirations and loyalty to her family.

Baby Tooth is a poignant drama that explores the fragility of familial bonds, the complexities of trauma and generational divides, and the resilience of love and acceptance in the face of hardship. Through caregiving and shared vulnerability, the family is forced to confront buried conflicts as they fight to hold themselves together.

How You Can Help: Baby Tooth is currently in the fundraising stage, and your donation is tax deductible! The project is fiscally sponsored by Film Independent, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization. Contributions on behalf of Baby Tooth are payable to Film Independent and tax deductible. Find out how to support Baby Tooth below:

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The Making of Baby Tooth

Inspiration

2018 | Growing up as a queer man in conservative rural Florida, writer/director Drew Lewis Brown wrestled with reconciling his identity in a community that often rejected difference. This internal struggle echoed his experience returning home as an outsider to help care for his ailing grandmother, a period marked by emotional revelations and the weight of caregiving. Witnessing his mother and sister navigate grief, love, and unspoken tensions, Brown became acutely aware of the ways caregiving can both fracture and fortify familial bonds.

Through Baby Tooth, Brown aims to explore the often-overlooked challenges of caregiving and the universal need for safety and acceptance—both within families and within ourselves.

Writing

2019 | Brown first drafted Baby Tooth in 2019, a few months after his grandmother passed away. Over the next four years, the screenplay underwent numerous rewrites and title changes as Brown honed the story to reflect its emotional depth and thematic complexity. Drawing from his personal experiences, he worked to create a narrative that balanced raw authenticity with universal resonance.

Each revision deepened the characters and explored the nuances of identity, caregiving, and family dynamics, ensuring the script captured the raw, lived-in truth of the story. The process also included incorporating feedback from peers and collaborators, which helped sharpen its focus and emotional impact. The script was locked in 2023.

Executive Producer

2022 | World-renowned choreographer/producer Trey McIntyre joined the Baby Tooth team as Executive Producer.

Trey has worked over 30 years as a freelance choreographer and producer, creating more than 100 pieces withcompanies including American Ballet Theatre, New York City Ballet, and Queensland Ballet. In 2005, he foundedhis dance company, Trey McIntyre Project, achieving great audience and critical success. For the company, Treyraised $2M annually, created over 23 original dance works, and produced numerous film projects, interactivesite-specific works, and photography collections. Trey’s feature-length documentary Gravity Hero premiered atthe Dance on Camera Film Festival at Lincoln Center.

Staged Readings

2023 | Two staged readings of the Baby Tooth screenplay were held in Jacksonville, Florida, at performing arts spaces and featured local actors. The events served as a platform for feedback and a way to formally introduce the project to the northeast Florida arts community. To promote the film and the staged readings, Brown appeared on WJXT4’s The Morning Show, where he shared his vision for Baby Tooth and highlighted its significance to the region. These engagements not only shaped the screenplay but also built anticipation and support for the film among local audiences.

Proof of Concept

2024 | Brown collaborated with northeast Florida filmmakers and actors to produce a proof-of-concept short for Baby Tooth (published at the top of this page). The short showcased vignettes drawn from key scenes in the screenplay, capturing the film’s tone, imagery, and emotional depth. By highlighting pivotal moments that shaped the characters, scenery, and central conflicts, the project brought Baby Tooth to life in its earliest form. The proof of concept not only conveyed the film’s narrative and visual style but also served as a critical tool in building support and excitement for the project.

Casting

2024 | Two exceptional cast members joined the production of Baby Tooth; Judith Ivey and Tenea Intriago

Judith Ivey (“Frances”)

Veteran stage actress Judith Ivey is a two-time Tony Award winner for Best Featured Actress in a Play for Steaming (1983) and Hurlyburly (1985). Her performances in Park Your Car in Harvard Yard (1992) and The Heiress (2013) were both nominated for Tony Awards. Ivey's television and film work extends over four decades; she is often associated with her one-year run as B.J. Poteet on Designing Women (1986). She also appeared in The Devil's Advocate (1997), What the Deaf Man Heard (1997) for which she received an Emmy nomination, Will & Grace (1998), Nurse Jackie (2009), Grey's Anatomy (2005), and Law & Order: Special Victims Unit (1999).

Tenea Intriago (“Apple”)

Tenea Intriago is a Portuguese-American actor who was just called the DAVE (FX) Breakout Star by theHollywood Reporter, where she held her own opposite Brad Pitt in 2023. Prior to this, Tenea was best known forher recurring role on Hulu’s Castle Rock (2019), a Series Regular on YouTube’s Overthinking with Kat and June(2018). Other credits are Claws (2017), Law & Order: Special Victims Unit (2017), Preacher (2017), NCIS: NewOrleans (2017), and Universal’s Happy Death Day (2017) and Happy Death Day 2U (2019).

2025 & Beyond

Baby Tooth is currently in the funding stage and is set to make exciting strides in 2025. The team will be visiting several cities in the spring to connect with audiences and promote fundraising efforts for the film as production is slated to begin in late 2025. If you'd like to help contribute your financial or in-kind support to bring Baby Tooth to life, please see the options below. Remember, this is a fiscally sponsored project, meaning all donations are tax-deductible. Your support will play a vital role in making this vision a reality!