Baltimore rapper Tashera “T” Savage is bringing her life story to the screen in an upcoming biopic that explores childhood trauma, mental health, family relationships and recovery.

Thru the Eyes of the Hustler’s Daughter is based on Savage’s experiences growing up around Baltimore’s drug trade, losing her father to violence and dealing with the emotional impact of those experiences. The film is currently in production and is expected to debut this fall.

Savage said the project is intended to go beyond the traditional street-life narrative.

“People will automatically think this is a hood movie, but it’s not,” Savage said. “I want people to see the triumph in my story — the overcoming.”

The film also brings together several people with strong Baltimore connections, including Savage’s mother, Shontel Greene, and former Baltimore Ravens running back Terrance West.

Greene, whose life was previously featured on American Gangster: Trap Queens, serves as an executive producer and owner of the film project.

During an interview with The Baltimore Times, Savage said the idea for the movie began to take shape after Greene’s television appearance.

Savage had been writing down memories from her childhood and stories involving both of her parents in a composition notebook. Those notes eventually became part of the foundation for the screenplay.

“I didn’t wake up one day and say, ‘We should just do a movie,’” Savage said.

She explained that after Trap Queens, producers and others became interested in hearing more about the story from her perspective. Greene later started her own production company and began developing the project with writers Peter Allen and Andrena Hale.

Greene said the project took about a year and a half to develop.

She had initially planned to tell her own life story, but later decided that Savage’s experience should come first.

“I started thinking about my daughter, like her part of the story,” Greene said. “I said, ‘You know what? I don’t want this to be a one-hit wonder. You have to know the whole story.’”

Greene has been open about her own past and said the film is not meant to glamorize drug activity or street life.

“I was forced into this lifestyle at just 14 years old after my mother’s and father’s heroin addictions,” Greene said in a statement. “I thought there was no other way out.”

She added that the purpose of the film is to show that change is possible.

“This is a life that SHOULD NOT BE GLAMORIZED,” Greene said. “The purpose of this film is to inspire and empower others to make a way out of no way.”

Today, Greene describes herself as a doctor and business owner.

Savage said her mother’s transformation has been one of the strongest influences in her own life.

“I watched my mom change her whole life around,” Savage said. “Having a woman like that that you can actually just watch do a whole 360, it really shows you that nothing is impossible.”

Former Baltimore Ravens running back Terrance West also plays a significant role in the film.

West, a West Baltimore native and former Towson University football player, portrays Savage’s father.

He said he was surprised when Greene approached him about the role, but the opportunity came during a difficult period in his own life.

“I was in a tough space,” West said. “I was just coming out of three mental health facilities trying to recover from football, trying to figure out what I’m going to do with my next step.”

West said the movie helped give him a renewed sense of direction.

“She gave me another opportunity,” he said. “She gave me a purpose to wake up in the morning.”

West trained with an acting coach for about two months before production. He said he had previously taken acting classes while attending Towson but had focused primarily on football at the time.

Now, he sees the film as an opportunity to connect with people facing some of the same mental health and life-transition challenges he has experienced.

“It’s not a hood movie, but it’s going to affect a lot of kids in the hood,” West said.

The film also features Hassan “Iniko” Johnson, known for HBO’s The Wire, Courtney Adele and Varonica Mitchell, who portray Savage at different stages of her life, and hip-hop artist B.G., whose real name is Christopher Dorsey.

Much of the movie was filmed in Baltimore, including locations connected to Savage’s childhood.

Savage said filming in Edmondson Village, where she grew up, was especially meaningful.

“To be able to have the camera crew on the block that I grew up in or the apartment that my mother raised me in, it’s a good feeling,” she said.

Savage said she was also encouraged by the support the production received from people in the neighborhood.

She hopes the film will help present a broader picture of Baltimore than the images of violence and drugs that often dominate portrayals of the city.

“There are really beautiful parts of the city,” Savage said. “It’s so many great people that make the city. It’s so many great things that’s happening in the city that doesn’t get the light.”

“We have doctors, we have lawyers, we got great artists,” she added.

Savage said that same perspective influences her music.

She wants listeners to understand that even when she talks about difficult parts of her childhood, the people involved were more complicated than the circumstances surrounding them.

“My father may have been a street dude, but he was a father,” she said.

Savage also said she feels a responsibility to remain connected to Baltimore as her career grows.

She told The Baltimore Times that seeing friends and supporters die over the years has made her more determined to continue telling her story and encouraging younger people in the city.

“If we all say, ‘Once I make it, I’m out of here and I ain’t coming back,’ the kids who keep growing up here won’t have nothing to look up to,” Savage said.

“Supporting your city is being there for your city.”

During the interview, Savage also offered advice to young people pursuing their own goals.

“Do it no matter what,” she said.

She acknowledged that self-doubt and setbacks are inevitable, but said persistence has been a defining part of her own journey.

“That only lasts for a second,” Savage said. “If you give up and you never go back to it, that’s forever.”

Savage is also working on the film’s soundtrack and her first full music project.

Greene said she plans to continue producing films, including future projects based on her own life and other Baltimore stories. West said his immediate focus remains on helping make Thru the Eyes of the Hustler’s Daughter successful.

Savage said she ultimately hopes the film encourages young women who are dealing with difficult circumstances.

“I’m not a perfect person, but I never give up,” she said.

“I hope it makes girls feel like, ‘I could do it too.’”