You can donate here<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\nRandall hopes to introduce more audiences to queer romantic comedies with Black women leads, she said. If all goes as planned, \u201cKismet\u201d will make its feature premiere on the big screen by summer 2026.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m a hopeless romantic who wants to read love stories and watch love stories on TV because it\u2019s fun and low stakes,\u201d Randall said. \u201cWith \u2018Kismet\u2019, I want people to smile. I want people to come away happy and laughing.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
![\"YouTube](\"https:\/\/i.ytimg.com\/vi\/XDdoKzj2H1U\/hqdefault.jpg\")
<\/p>\n
Randall always knew she wanted to be a writer, she said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Growing up in Englewood, she read fiction constantly and participated in her school\u2019s Young Authors program, Randall said. She furthered her education in fiction writing at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and received a Master of Fine Arts in creative writing at Columbia University in New York City.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Most of her writing was about historical events or political activism, Randall said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cThen I got older and started dating, and I started writing more stories about relationships,\u201d Randall said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
In 2016, her cousin asked for help writing a web series he wanted to get off the ground. The series never entered production, but through the experience, she \u201cgot the bug for writing scripts,\u201d Randall said. That same year, she wrote \u201cKismet.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
Randall finished writing the script for her short film in a few weeks, she said. Next came scouting for locations and building out a cast to bring her words to life.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cKismet\u201d tells the story of Jessica, an ambitious Black woman who is laser-focused on having a well-rounded, successful life with a career, family and friends.\u00a0<\/p>\n
After an unexpected breakup \u2014 her former partner leaves her in a letter \u2014 Jessica bumps into Jada,\u00a0a laid-back barber and graduate student, on the street before Jessica\u2019s rambunctious mother arranges for the two to go on a date. After an ex-flame crashes a passionate night, the two have to find their way back to each other.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Randall used Backstage, a platform for hiring rising talent, and Craigslist to cast Jessica, portrayed by Alexandria Franklin, and the surrounding cast. But finding someone to portray Jada, a masc-identifying woman, was a challenge, Randall said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cGrowing up and being in Chicago and in our culture, there\u2019s a lot of masc-identifying lesbians,\u201d Randall said. \u201cI wanted to highlight that and Black women. I never feel like I watch these movies and Black women are at the center.\u201d<\/p>\n
A friend suggested she contact Milon V. Parker, a Chicago-based performer with a few independent films already on her resume.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cAt that point, she\u2019d done a few movies in Chicago and was well known, so I didn\u2019t know if Milon would want to do my small short,\u201d Randall said. \u201cBut I contacted her, and she was down.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/Kismet-1-1024x666.png\")
\u201cKismet,\u201d a short film that centers a Black lesbian couple, has received over 9 million views on YouTube. Milon V. Parker (left) plays Jada and Alexandria Franklin (right) plays Jessica in the film. Credit: Provided<\/p>\n
Randall filmed \u201cKismet\u201d in one weekend in 2017, she said. Scenes were shot in her friend\u2019s apartments, a mentor\u2019s home and Simone\u2019s Bar in Pilsen. She released it in August 2017 on her YouTube page.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cKismet\u201d made its festival debut in 2017 and sat on her YouTube page for years, Randall said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Six years later, in 2023, she came across OML TV<\/a>, a platform spotlighting LGBTQ+ content, and a recent post asking people to submit content for their YouTube page.<\/p>\nRandall submitted \u201cKismet\u201d and watched the views for her short film climb from 1 million views to over 9.5 million views, she said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cIt made me think that maybe there is something here,\u201d Randall said. \u201cMaybe I can make a feature film.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
It\u2019s been eight years since Randall first shared her short film, but audiences today continue to connect to the story, she said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cKismet\u201d the feature-length film will expand on the characters and world she built in her short film. It\u2019ll be the light romantic comedy audiences have been longing for, she said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cPeople tell me they watched it and it was great or they see two Black women and tell me they\u2019re going to watch it right away,\u201d Randall said. \u201cJust knowing what I\u2019m making is resonating with an audience is wonderful.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
Listen to the Block Club Chicago podcast:<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"CHICAGO \u2014 Arnetta Randall has always adored romantic comedies.\u00a0 She grew up loving \u201cWhile You Were Sleeping\u201d, the…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":142879,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5124],"tags":[648,960,1322,5386,1818],"class_list":{"0":"post-142878","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-chicago","8":"tag-arts","9":"tag-chicago","10":"tag-featured","11":"tag-il","12":"tag-illinois"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115022518259811328","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/142878","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=142878"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/142878\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/142879"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=142878"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=142878"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=142878"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/Kismet-1024x666.png\")
Arnetta Randall (left) hopes to raise $50,000 to turn her short film, \u201cKismet\u201d, into a feature-length production. Credit: Provided<\/p>\n