Ahead of its August 9th premiere at the Martha’s Vineyard African American Film Festival, I Love This Arrangement is already generating buzz across the festival circuit.

The award-winning romantic comedy, directed by Jacquin DeLeon and produced by TZ Shaw of Shawdog Entertainment in collaboration with Hidden Root Productions, follows an aspiring Haitian chef facing deportation who enters a fraudulent marriage with a passionate Dominican woman drowning in debt. As the lies pile up and the pressure mounts, the fragile arrangement spins into dangerous territory, where love, survival, and betrayal collide.

The film stars Nick Alexander and Efrangeliz Medina, alongside Orlando Leyba, with casting from Natasha Ward. The story is inspired by a real situation star Alexander once found himself in, and shot on location in New York City, the same city where the story is set, to capture the authenticity DeLeon and Shaw felt Los Angeles couldn’t replicate.

I Love This Arrangement kicked off its summer run with exclusive screenings in Los Angeles on July 27 and New York on July 30, ahead of its official selection premiere at MVAAFF on August 9th.

The film has already sparked dialogue across festival audiences about the way people experience love in a world full of fear, while sidestepping the political noise surrounding immigration to focus on something more universal: two people finding love while doing what they have to do for their families.

The Quintessential Gentleman sat down with DeLeon and Shaw to talk about where the story came from, why they chose New York, and what they hope audiences take away from it.

[Interview has been edited for length and clarity]

QG: Jacquin, tell me, what is I Love This Arrangement about?

Jacquin DeLeon: It’s a story, it’s a human story. It’s a story about struggle, survival, the American dream, the ever-changing goalpost of the American dream, the sacrifices we have to make for our families… It’s not really a political statement, it’s more so the human experience. And that’s what we wanted to lean into.

QG: TZ, what was it about this story that made you want to come on board?

TZ Shaw: One, the rom-com love aspect of it. I’m a rom-com guy. I love watching movies about love and relationships and the journey to and from. But the human experiences, the sacrifices we put up with, the things, the hoops that we jump through to make these things happen. And the overall story.

QG: Where did this story come from?

JD: It really germinated with the star, Nick Alexander, who is Haitian… it basically stemmed from a real-life situation that he was in. And he got approached and someone said, ‘Hey, I need citizenship, can we do X, Y, and Z?’ Ultimately he didn’t do it, but that idea stuck with him.

QG: The film was shot in New York City. Was there intentionality behind that?

JD: “We had the discussion of shooting in LA for New York, but we weren’t gonna get that authentic feel. We weren’t gonna get the bodega… you turn one inch to the left, one inch to the right, there’s a palm tree, and you know you’re in LA at that point. So shooting in New York allowed us a lot more leeway… there’s still freedom here.

TZ: I loved it. From the conversations that we had, the look that they were going for, we knew that we weren’t gonna be able to get that here in LA. So our best bet was to go and be in that authenticity of the whole city.

QG: How did you approach the political climate around immigration without letting it take over the story?

JD: We focus more on the story of community and connection… we know that these political aspects exist, but we treat it almost like a boogeyman. We know that these elements are around, that they can impede at any time. Which is why, in the short, we ended it with, ‘Nobody wants to go to jail.’

TZ: I think it’s the authenticity of how we approached it. When we shot this, this was before everything that’s going on now, which kind of makes it timeless in a sense… I just feel like when you see it, you’ll get it.

QG: How do you feel about how culturally relevant stories are being supported in the industry right now?

JD: I think we’re watching things shift in real time… there’s always a pushback when people of color start doing a little bit too well. DEI freed up that money a little bit. Now that the rollbacks are happening again, in real time, the conversations start to become harder.

TZ: I think the best thing about being independent is, as long as you got the right team around you, we’re gonna tell the stories that we wanna tell.

QG: What is it about rom-coms specifically that you love?

TZ: I love the thought of it, I love being in it, making it, all the good things about it. When you watch a love story, like being in a relationship on TV, the good, the bad, the ugly, you’re feeling what they’re feeling. When I watch movies, I wanna be moved emotionally.”

JD: What’s interesting is you get to watch these two people on parallel journeys… we root for them because we want that love… I don’t want a rom-com for me personally that is a struggle rom-com. I think we as people of color, I’m kind of over that, that we have to be portrayed in this struggle. This is love. This is, hey, opportunity.

I Love This Arrangement screens August 9th at the Martha’s Vineyard African American Film Festival, following exclusive screenings in Los Angeles and New York. Check out the full interview.