News | April 8th, 2025
In the Chateau Brings HBCU Life to the Big Screen
By: Justin Lloyd
Florida A&M University’s Lee Hall is set to become a cinematic showcase this fall as the highly anticipated film, In the Chateau, is set to premiere in the auditorium.
In the Chateau is an HBCU-based film that follows Raven Jones, a high-achieving journalism student at French Hill University. After landing a prestigious job at IT Magazine, Raven realizes that she is missing a credit and is forced to mentor transfer student James Richardson. The two embark on a coming-of-age journey and learn to deal with rivalries, campus politics, Greek life, and more.
The film was written, directed, and produced by FAMU alumnus, Dacari Taylor, a native of Tallahassee. Taylor earned a health science degree in 2022 but had no intentions to work in the healthcare industry afterwards. When a friend noticed his creativity and suggested that he try to create a movie, Taylor was confused as he had no prior experience with filmmaking.
“I try to remember sometimes you can’t just rely on what you see in the mirror, you have to rely on what other people see in you,” Taylor said. “So I was like okay, I’m going to try to shoot something and see how it comes out.”
Still, Taylor took the challenge and began writing In the Chateau during the summer. Since starting the project, he says that has gained a stable film crew and support from the entire FAMU campus especially within the School of Journal and Graphic Communications.
“I really give a lot of praise to my prophytes of the Beta Nu chapter of Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity Incorporated, who answer my calls whenever I need them, and FAMU in general,” Taylor said. “I did not graduate from the school of journalism but any time I came into the school, somebody like Mr. Edward Thomas has always shown me love.”
Edward Thomas is the FAMU TV-20 general manager and brings years of television and film production experience to FAMU. Thomas and Taylor have had several conversations about “In the Chateau,” and he praised Taylor for his leadership and work ethic during the production of the film.
“We’ve had some really good filmmakers that are starting to really come to the forefront and Dacari is one of them. He has shown leadership in every capacity that I’ve seen,” said Thomas. “When a lot of people find out that he’s about to make something, they definitely want to be involved in some capacity so that shows me that he comes with a certain work ethic that people want to follow and know that something good is going to come out of all the work that they put into it.”
Taylor has amassed a film crew of over 40 people, featuring FAMU alumni and current students at the university. Among the crew is Hansley Felix, FAMU alumni and the director of photography of In the Chateau.
As the founder and creator of the photography company “Smooth Studios” in Tallahassee, Felix uses his expertise with cameras and lighting to set the tone for scenes in the film. He says that he has enjoyed his experiences with working with different people and bringing new ideas to life on set, even if it can be challenging sometimes.
“It’s always fun to be able to not only work with so many different people, but to also bring the vision to life,” Felix said. “It does get challenging sometimes when we feel like we don’t have enough help because we are independent and sometimes when we don’t have what we need, we have to work creatively and think outside the box, but that’s what makes everything fun on set. It allows for us to not only learn, but to work with each other to get better all together.”
When it comes to his biggest takeaways from the story of In the Chateau, Felix says that he loves that the film highlights HBCU culture.
“It shows how much of a culture we have. The fact that we can replicate what we see on a day to day shows that we really have a rich culture,” Felix said. “To be able to mirror that and reflect that onto the movie lets me know how much of a great opportunity that I not only have in attending FAMU but shooting an HBCU-based film.”
