Crowdfunding Rewards

We had an extremely successful campaign in 2021 to market our film, thank you. We are now raising investor dollars to shoot our film and would love your support.

Mission Statement

Ron Ash creates films about Black women, by Black women, that encourage us to share our self-love journeys, inspire each other to learn how to survive life’s isms (racism, sexism, ageism, colorism), and thrive as empowered women, with a strong identity, support system, and great love of self.

About The Project

When an anxiety-entrenched daughter chooses to care for her estranged father who unexpectedly arrives at her home, her life downward spirals; only uncovering family secrets and facing deep-rooted trauma will save her life and his.

Sasha Staye is a successful photojournalist who captures the realness of people experiencing homelessness, drug abuse, and domestic violence, among other things. She comes face to face with the dysfunctional past she so meticulously tucked away when her deceitful brother abruptly drops their father, Arnold Staye on her doorstep.

Now Sasha, who has an anxiety disorder, must adjust to being the caretaker of her estranged father. The tension is thick, as he expects her to cook, clean, do the laundry and entertain him.

Sasha’s story takes us on a journey of self-exploration as we root for her to heal and stay emotionally healthy, despite the tension between she and her father. This self-love tale is an emotional journey depicting relatable facets of the complicated father-daughter dynamic.

Through this film, we continually find ourselves asking; can we learn to love ourselves despite our past experiences and society constantly telling us we’re not enough?

Black women, more often than they speak about it, are going through abusive relationships, fertility struggles, and severe mental health issues, amongst other things; their race and gender are the unifying themes. Black women are taught to keep silent, not realizing that suppression does even more damage. Ron Ash seeks to break this cycle of silence through film.

My name is Sauda Johnson-McNeal and I’m the Founder and CEO of Ron Ash, LLC (named in honor of my father Ron Ashford – who raised me to love myself, unapologetically). Our mission is to deliver thought-provoking, authentically honest feature films that leave moviegoers with such a lasting impression, they want our films in their home collection.

If I’m being honest – you couldn’t have told me in a million years that I would share my self-love journey. I mean who shares that she thought she was ugly or hated her personality and tried to kill herself?

Therapy, awesome parents, and my love for the Lord, in addition to sharing with my friends, helped me shift from self-loathing to self-loving. I started mentoring other women, letting them know they’re not alone – we’ve been there; the journey is worth the reward. My mentees started working on loving themselves, graduating, starting families, becoming BOSSes – and this made me ecstatic – like I’d hit the million-dollar jackpot!

I realized my life purpose is to inspire other Black women to start or stay on their self-love journey by fostering a universal healing circle – through sharing and learning from each other.

Film is my passion, as a child I loved movies. I obtained a degree from USC in acting (joined Alpha Kappa Alpha) and I became an attorney because I met a BOSS Black female attorney/producer and decided – that’s what I’m going to do.

Bottom Line: I started Ron Ash for two reasons – FIRST – I needed a way to reach Black women, our younger ones in particular, on a massive scale. I can’t count the number of young women I’ve met who didn’t love themselves because of their skin color, nose, hair, and I wished I could help in some way. SECOND – we are not often represented positively in mainstream media. I decided to fuse my passion with my life purpose to reach more Black women. My films are solution-based, you never know whose life you may save, just from sharing.

Thank you so much for joining our movement and helping us spread our self-love agenda! Thanks to our wonderful backers, we completed a successful crowdfunding campaign on Seed and Spark and now people know who we are and that we’re making self-love movies!

We are diligently working on raising the remaining funds to start production later this year and we NEED your help. Please SHOW YOUR SUPPORT with a contribution or CONTACT US to provide in-kind assistance and follow @ronashllc on social media. THANK YOU!!

Our ultimate goal: release our film theatrically or on a streaming platform.

We will shoot principal photography in Shreveport, LA while following strict COVID-19 guidelines. We care about our cast and crew and with your help, we can focus on taking care of our team.

2021 was a difficult year, emotionally, physically, and racially. This film explores how to practice self-love and there’s no better time for Black women to feel inspired to love themselves than now.

There are 2 main ways you can help us make this self-love story a reality!

1) Invest! This is your chance to be a part of the film business. Check out our WeFunder page and please become an investor!

2) HELP SPREAD THE WORD! Word of mouth never goes out of style and can have an enormous impact on the success of this campaign. Please follow us on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter (@ronashllc), and share our campaign and our posts about the film and the movement.

$25 Get Recognized!

$50 Self-Love Digital Art

Are you ready to get recognized? As a thank you for your contribution we will put your name on our website acknowledgment list and give you a social shout out!

We’ll send you a digital download of this beautiful artwork (the original was hand-painted by local female artist Marielle Washington.

$100 Self-Love Zoom Series

A narrative feature film about Sasha Staye, an anxiety-entrenched daughter who chooses to care for her estranged father that unexpectedly arrives at her home, her life downward spirals; only uncovering family secrets and facing deep-rooted trauma, will save her life and his.

Did you miss our Intimate Conversations – A Self-Love Series with professionals dropping knowledge on ways to love yourself – infinitely? Not to worry, we’ve got you covered. We’ll share our full series with you (at the close of the campaign), and reward you with you a social shout out and website recognition.

$250 Self-Love Sneak Peek

Be the first to see “The Skin You’re In” before it’s released, virtually meet other backers, and ask the filmmakers questions. PLUS as an added bonus, you’ll get your name added to the film closing credits and the social shout out and get recognized rewards! What could be better than that?!

$500 Seat at the VIP Table

Of course, we’re giving you the social shout-out, get recognized, digital art (at the close of the campaign), self-love sneak peek, and name in credits rewards; ANDDD you will also virtually attend a table read with the full cast. Plus you will attend the WRAP party as our VIP guest (travel not included).