Bite of a Mango

After a casual hook up between Jayne and Tray in the early stages of lockdown when Covid-19 was first introduced to the world, Jayne, a strikingly independent half-Nigerian half-Jamaican woman, is left feeling alone in dealing with an unplanned pregnancy. In Jayne’s absence, Tray seeks the friendship of an old flame only to realize how he truly feels about Jayne.

In addition to now having to divide their time between their friendships with Jayne and Tray, with the Black Lives Matter movement rising to new heights, Rowe and Chris find themselves on different ends of the spectrum of activism. As Chris becomes more of a leader in the space, Rowe starts dating someone white, and is left feeling like an outsider in his own community.

As the world changed with the Murder of George Floyd, Chris decides to create a space for Black people to be safe and talk. Rowe was insensitive to this as he still invited his White girlfriend, causing friction between everyone.

Jayne soon learns how Tray really feels and decides to continue with the pregnancy without him until talking to her father to mend things for the child's sake. With new life, the foursome consider second chances and reconcile their differences to keep their group together.

Joanne Jansen and Ron Dias wrote the script in two days during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic in Canada, drawing inspiration with what was going in the world in 2020. It was filmed over five days during the pandemic. The team of four took all necessary precautions to ensure a safe environment while the rest of the industry was shut down.[7] In order to keep the budget under ten thousand dollars, Dias and Jansen wore multiple hats including editing, colouring, sound composing, cinematography and set decorating.[8]

• Jayne Kamara as Jayne
• Ryan Rosery as Tray
• Orville Cummings as Rowe
• Nathan Taylor as Chris
• Shawna Stewart as Missy
• Yana Gold as Rebecca
• Bianca Nugara as Maya
• Dorren Lee as Dr. Leslie Taylor

At Reelworld, the film won the Audience Choice Award and Jayne Kamara won Outstanding actress in a feature film.[9]

The Toronto Star gave praise to the film as the first Toronto production to screen at the American Black Film Festival and be received with great reviews. Tickets for its premiere at Toronto's Reel World Film Festival were sold out in 3 days. The Toronto Star stated that the filmmakers will be the next big names of Toronto while adding a shot of the film. On October 15, Bite of a Mango was met with positive reviews and was given a standing ovation by over 300 people for capturing Toronto on the big screen in such an authentic way.[10]

• Bite of a Mango at IMDb
• Official website
• Bite of a Mango at Rotten Tomatoes