A SPECULATIVE COLLECTION EXPLORING POWER, SYSTEMS, AND THE HUMAN COST OF CONTROL.
The Qualities of Soil is a collection of speculative short stories that examine how systems of power shape, and often distort, Black life. Each story blends realism with allegory to expose the unseen roots of oppression, exploring what grows, survives, and resists beneath the surface of control.
A BLACK MIRROR STYLE COLLECTION OF SHORT STORIES.
Qualities of Soil is a collection of speculative short stories that examine the systems, memories, and futures that shape Black life. Each story is its own world, its own question, its own reckoning. Some are set in the near future. Some feel like yesterday. All of them ask what happens when the structures we've built to survive begin to shift, collapse, or reveal something underneath that was always there. The collection spans four sections: what the earth remembers, the mechanics of control, what we carry, and what comes next. Every story is written to stand alone, to haunt on its own terms, and to be adapted independently for screen. This is speculative fiction as social excavation, told one story at a time.
IP DEVELOPMENT STRATEGY
FORMAT: ANTHOLOGY
STATUS: In Development
A SHORT FILM ANTHOLOGY THAT REIMAGINES SYSTEMS AND SURVIVAL
The format strategy for The Qualities of Soil focuses on its adaptation into a short film anthology, an interconnected series of cinematic parables that reveal how systems evolve, oppress, and endure. Each film stands alone in tone and setting, yet together they form a unified vision of speculative resistance and reclamation.
This format allows each story’s unique rhythm and visual identity to emerge while preserving the collection’s larger thematic structure. Through this adaptation, The Qualities of Soil becomes both mirror and magnifier, a visceral exploration of power and possibility that challenges how we see the world and the systems we live within.
INTERESTED IN COLLABORATING ON QUALITIES OF SOIL?
Qualities of Soil is an owned property of UnOthr, available for select partnership across film, television, publishing, and live experience. We collaborate with producers, studios, and cultural partners who understand that story is infrastructure, and that the most enduring work is built to move across formats while staying rooted in the vision that created it. For film and television inquiries, literary and rights conversations, or speaking and appearances, reach out below.