After finding great success releasing their debut feature film on the free streaming service Tubi, Ypsilanti-based married filmmakers Keith and Yolanda Ragland are nearly ready to debut their second movie. Their first feature, "Money Over Boyz," debuted in January.

"Money Over Boyz" is a crime "dramedy" with tense, gripping moments of violence; bits of comic relief; and lots of local color, including location shots all over Ypsilanti, Ann Arbor, and Detroit. The film features a tense meeting between potential allies on the Tridge at Ypsilanti's Riverside Park, dirty dealings in local dive bars, and a scene of violence in one of Ypsilanti's mural-covered alleyways.

Yolanda and Keith RaglandA still from "Money Over Boyz."
Keith Ragland says the film's name came first, and then the plot. Yolanda Ragland has a side hustle as a rapper under the name "MOB Diva," and "MOB" stands for the title of one of her albums, "Money Over Boyz." Keith Ragland initially thought he'd write the film's script, but he decided his wife had to write it since the story has a strong theme of women in power. The film's main character, Yanna, finds out her boyfriend, Little Cheddar, is not only cheating on her, but planning to rob her mother's salon. She turns the tables on him, recruiting her best friend and the "other woman" to double-cross Little Cheddar.

"Money Over Boyz" reached Tubi's "most popular" category immediately, in part because Tubi promotes newly-acquired films on its "First Time on Tubi" category for their first week on the service. But the film remained in the "popular" category for 30 days and topped other subcategories for several weeks more. Tubi makes most of its money through advertisements shown during its content, and it shares profits with filmmakers like the Raglands. 

Yolanda and Keith RaglandA still from "Money Over Boyz."
"From over 50,000 films on Tubi, we were in the top 100 for over a month," Keith Ragland says. "That's a huge accomplishment, and financially a blessing. We were almost able to make our money back in a matter of months."

Ragland says Tubi has been marketing itself as "expressly for Black independent films."

"They've got millions of Black followers on Tubi, and it's becoming a mecca for Black independent films. People, especially young urban Black women, go there to see someone like themselves," he says.

Ragland says more than 100 people auditioned for parts in the film, some coming from as far away as Georgia. Ragland says he felt humbled by the trust people showed in himself and his wife before they had any credibility as filmmakers, though he says some people remembered a community network show called "Out Tha Box TV" they produced that ran on Ann Arbor CTN for a little over two years.

Ragland says he and his wife did all the crew work on the film, directing, casting, operating cameras, and running sound. He says it was "a lot of work" and he understands why even small-budget movies have hundreds of behind-the-scenes employees.

Ragland says he and his wife learned from the experience, and they believe their second film,  "Where She Creep," will be a more polished production. 

"We have a whole other understanding of how things are supposed to work, so it'll be better put together," he says. 

While "Money Over Boyz" featured the gritty alleyways and bars and Ypsilanti, the new film will focus on Ypsilanti's music scene. Local musician Where She Creep will play a magnetic, slightly androgynous musician much like Prince. As a kind of homage to Prince's first film, "Purple Rain," Ragland says the film will feature several musical interludes. 

The poster for "Where She Creep."
"The first movie was more of 'raw' Ypsi and Detroit. In this one, we're going to make Ypsi look cool," Ragland says. "Money Over Boyz was a hood version of Ypsi, and this is more Ziggy's-late-night or the Tap-Room-playing-pool side of Ypsilanti. It's filmed a lot in Depot Town, near [734 Brewing Company], so it's got that late-night have-a-beer-in-Ypsi vibe, too."

The Raglands expect to release their second film this summer on Tubi as well. You can watch "Money Over Boyz" for free on Tubi here.