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“Spare Me” by filmmaker Wilderley Mauricette is the latest “Afro-PoP Digital Short,” the streaming series from (BPM). “Spare Me” was screened at 20 film festivals, and now it is available for free on the .

AfroPoP Digital Shorts, the streaming series from Black Public Media (BPM), offers narrative and documentary short films about Black issues worldwide. 

Set in the 1930s, “Spare Me” follows a young man named Trey Compton, portrayed by actor Brian Boyd. When his car breaks down, the normal anxiety that comes with needing to fix a flat tire on the side of the road is amplified as Compton finds himself in a race against time as he discovers he is in Sarasota, Florida, a sundown town.

Historically, sundown towns were predominantly populated by Whites, but Black people were warned not to be out after dark.

“The scarier part is that there are actually still sundown towns in existence today in 2024, and that’s just mind-boggling to me,” Mauricette said in an interview with the Sarasota Observer.

Frustrated by his unfortunate flat tire, Compton gets out of his car, looks around and sees a wooden sign with a warning: “N——rs! This is Sarasota. Don’t let the sun set on you here. Understand?”

Overcoming intense distress, an elder appears before Compton to present an unseen opportunity and a reminder that there is not much time. 

It’s a hot, sweaty, tense film. In addition to Compton’s anxieties that jump off the screen, the audience receives lessons about moving out of the past. 

“Spare Me” producer and director Mauricette, born in Haiti and raised in Sarasota and Bradenton, Florida, “ gives audiences a unique take on road trip films. He also focuses on the bonds between fathers and sons. 

“I wanted to make a love letter to Pops. When I looked at that picture, the idea came,” said Mauricette, . “I know I didn’t live in that era, but I know my history. When my teachers didn’t know what sundown towns were, I felt it was part of my duty to teach it with my film.”

Learn more about Black Public Media at . Visit the BPM YouTube channel at (@BlackPublicMedia).