Pharmacopeia

Tania Taiwo, Writer/Director 

Sloan Grant(s) Received: 2021, Sloan Commissioning Grant, Sundance Institute 

Project Type: Feature 

Genre: Fiction 

Length: 100 minutes 

Field of Science: Pharmacology 

Stage: Development 

Synopsis 

Bowie James, a former D.A.R.E. Kid, now a Black Pharmacist—grappling with insurmountable debt and the death of her mother—becomes a drug dealer in order to save her family’s legacy. This bifurcated lifestyle of Pharmacist by day, dealer by night, sends Bowie into a downward spiral of addiction as she becomes those she once frowned upon: Big Pharma and the corner boys. But it’s the customers along the way that prove to have the greatest impact on her identity. Pharmacopeia is the story of a woman who breaks the rules for the first time in her life, and discovers herself—whether that’s a good thing or a bad, the verdict is still out.