Bron Acquires JJ Bola’s Novel ‘The Selfless Act Of Breathing’; Keenan Scott II To Adapt

EXCLUSIVE: Bron Studios has snapped up rights to The Selfless Act of Breathing, the newly released novel by JJ Bola, to develop into a feature-length film.

Playwright Keenan Scott II (Broadway’s Thoughts of a Colored Man) will adapt for the screen.

The Selfless Act of Breathing follows Michael Kabongo, a British-Congolese teacher living in London on the cusp of two identities. On paper, he seems to have it all: He’s beloved by his students, popular with his co-workers, and the pride and joy of a mother who emigrated from the Congo to the UK in search of a better life. But behind closed doors, he’s been struggling with the overwhelming sense that he can’t address the injustices he sees raging before him – from his relentless efforts to change the lives of his students for the better to his attempts to transcend the violence and brutality that marginalizes young Black men around the world.

Then one day he suffers a devastating loss, and his life is thrown into a tailspin. Michael decides to spontaneously pack up and go to America, where he imagines everything will be better, easier — a place where he can become someone new, someone without a past filled with pain. There he parties with new friends, sparks on new romances, splurges on big adventures, with the intent of living life until the money in his bank account runs out.

Said Bola, “The Selfless Act of Breathing being brought to the screen is incredibly exciting for me. Film is such a powerful tool of transformation, and the possibility of telling this timely, poignant story, at a time like this in the world, fills me with hope. I want to thank everyone who has believed in this story from the beginning, my agency, and the team at Bron. I thank my readers and I look forward to reaching a new audience, via a new medium, and helping us all — which is the reason I wrote this novel — to remember that no matter how we feel, we are not alone.”

Bron chairman and CEO Aaron L. Gilbert will produce on behalf of the studio, with Jared Kramer and Katia Washington overseeing the project day to day and Ryan Busse and Stephen Meinen to produce on behalf of Story Collective.

“We could not be prouder to be a part of bringing JJ Bola’s profound novel to the screen. We were immediately captivated by his words and believe this book has the ability to reach and unite readers across all borders and walks of life. Keenan’s voice blew us away and he is the perfect person to entrust with this material. We are very excited and honored to support this type of storytelling,” said Gilbert.

Scott is a native New Yorker, born and raised in Queens. Recently, his play Thoughts of a Colored Man opened at The Golden Theater to rave reviews. The play made its world premiere at Syracuse Stage and transferred to Baltimore Center Stage for their 2019-2020 theatrical season. He began his journey in the underground SLAM poetry scene of Washington, DC at the age of 15. A self-published poet by 18, he had performed up and down the east coast winning various SLAM poetry contests. A few of Scott’s  previous works have been produced at Howard University, Gala Hispanic Theatre, National Black Theater and the NYC Fringe Festival.

Bola is a Kinshasa-born British writer, poet and UNHCR Goodwill Ambassador, based in London. His three poetry collections — Elevate (2012), Daughter of the Sun (2014), and WORD (2015) — were published in one collection called Refuge (2018), which was read out in the British House of Commons during Refugee Week in 2018. He was one of Spread the Word’s Flight Associates 2017 and a Kit de Waal Scholar for the Birkbeck University MA in Creative Writing. As a former refugee, Bola was invited to the Davos Economic Forum 2018 and held a discussion with Cate Blanchett. His debut novel, No Place to Call Home, was first published in the UK in 2017, and in 2018 in North America. His non-fiction book Mask Off: Masculinity Redefined, which exposes masculinity as a socially conditioned performance, was published in the UK in 2019 and sold into German, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese (Brazil) and Finnish.

Bola is represented by Pontas Literary & Film Agency. Scott is represented by A3 Artists.