When Stars Grow Dim

An unforgettable love story and short film

About the film

*Currently in pre-production and expected to release in the Spring of 2026.

When Stars Grow Dim is an unforgettable love story and dialogue-free short about the courage to pursue love in the face of doubt — not because finding love will fulfill you, but because the pursuit is what makes life worth living. Set to the amazing vocals and emotional arc of Cécile McLorin Salvant's rendition of “Until.” When Stars Grow Dim blends live action and animation while using music, dance, and art to offer a surreal meditation on love and longing.

  • ‘How far would you go for the whisper of a dream?'

  • When a man has a serendipitous brush with his soul-mate, he’s forced to face his self-doubt or risk losing her forever. His choice catapults him through a surreal dreamscape towards his destiny, to prove that nothing is more powerful than love… not even death.

About the music

Until 

as performed by

Cécile McLorin Salvant

“Until” is a waltz/ballad song written and originally performed by Gordon Sumner, better known as Sting, for the 2001 Academy Award-nominated and Golden Globe-winning film, Kate & Leopold. The song won the Golden Globe Award for Best Original Song and was nominated for the Academy Award in the same category.

Salvant’s rendition of the song was featured on her Grammy nominated 2022 album Ghost Song.

More about the singer

Cécile McLorin Salvant

Cécile McLorin Salvant is one of the most highly regarded jazz vocalists of a generation as well as a composer and visual artist. She’s developed a passion for storytelling and finding the connections between vaudeville, blues, theater, jazz, baroque and folkloric music. She is an eclectic curator, unearthing rarely recorded, forgotten songs with strong narratives, interesting power dynamics, unexpected twists, and humor.

Salvant won the Thelonious Monk competition in 2010 and received three consecutive Grammys for best jazz vocal album, for The Window, Dreams and Daggers, and For One To Love. She was nominated for a Grammy for WomanChild.

In 2020, Salvant received the MacArthur fellowship and the Doris Duke Artist Award. Recent albums, on Nonesuch, include the Grammy-nominated Ghost Song and Mélusine, an album mostly sung in French, along with Occitan, English, and Haitian Kreyòl.

Salvant released her latest album Oh Snap on September 19, 2025. Available on all streaming platforms.

Creative Team

  • Chris Dickerson, an acclaimed writer, director, editor, and producer hailing from Austin, Texas, is the visionary behind Fun Size Riot Films.

  • A multidisciplinary producing artist, Alesyn is passionate about collaborating with creative people of diverse backgrounds to produce live-action art designed to enlighten, inspire, and entertain.

    As a producer, cinematographer, and editor, Alesyn has been at the helm of creating both short and long-form commercial media- including works showcased at the Cannes Film Festival's Court Métrage.

    Alesyn is co-founder of Black LGBT+ Plays (BLP), an organization dedicated to uplifting the voices of Black queer film and theatre artists in the Detroit area and was recently awarded a technology grant from Knight Arts Foundation to complete an immersive video project focusing on the narratives of elder queer people.

    BLP also produces Woman Crush Everyday, where representations of Black queer women in film, television and plays are discussed. Guests of Woman Crush Everyday include producer and writer, Lena Waithe (Showtime's "The Chi", "Queen & Slim", Netflix's "Master of None").

    As a hip-hop artist, Alesyn (Al Wu, Alexyn Wundrland) has released five solo and collaborative projects since 2018 with their label, Beats Rhymes Everything Detroit.Alesyn earned her Bachelor of Arts from Howard University with a major in Radio, Television and Film Production and a Master of Arts Administration from Wayne State University. A 2022 Kennedy Center/ACTF ASPIRE Leadership Fellow, Alesyn is the proud recipient of the Charlene Gordon Arts Impact Award presented by the College of Fellows of the American Theatre.

  • Devon is an experienced playwright, screenwriter and director. His most well-known works include ‘Another Place’ which was produced for Detroit’s first Hip-Hop Theatre festival and his direction of the activist film project ‘Trouble in Censorville’.

Contact Us

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