A horror feature, an animated family short, an Arab-American short film, and more are on the docket for October 2020. Our friends at Seed&Spark have all sorts of projects you can support; what we feature here is merely dipping your toe into the indie filmmaker ocean.
REMISSION
A horror feature written and directed by Greg Ivan Smith (Darwin: The Series, The Back Room), Remission is inspired by Smith’s personal experience giving daily care to his ailing father in Maine. Horror and drama don’t often collide, but Remission’s unique premise looks promising.
DON’T DIE
What do you get when you combine a black-market pharmacy and a creepy basement? Don’t Die, a unique feature from director Benjamin Stark (The Nocturnal Third). The first Seed&Spark campaign from Alabamians, Don’t Die promises to be a dark thriller that’s not a bitter pill.
CASEY THE FROG
Inspired by her own experiences in the pediatric wing at the Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, Casey Landman’s (Mysteries at the Museum, Scar) Casey the Frog is an animated short aiming to help families go through a child’s cancer diagnosis. Featuring songs and a charming art style, Casey the Frog is bound to be a classic for generations.
LEVELING LINCOLN
Arden Teresa Lewis’ documentary feature Leveling Lincoln takes us deep into the 1961 desegregation case Taylor vs. Board of Education of New Rochelle, NY. Featuring both vintage footage and new interviews with students who lived through this controversial 1960s racial social experiment, the film hopes to inspire today’s activists by sharing a grassroots organization in the past that was successful in the face of adversity.
TALLAHASSEE
Tallahassee is a striking meditation on life after grief. Featuring women of color as every department head in the production, director Darine Hotait (Command or Truth, Like Salt) and screenwriter Hala Alyan bring us a timely look at the stigma around mental health in the Arab-American community.
THE COMFORT ZONE: A SOCIAL JUSTICE ACTION ADVENTURE
An action-packed short from a crew of queer folk, women, and ethnically diverse artists, The Comfort Zone looks at the adventures that happen when a cis lawyer going through the motions meets a free-spirited trans female rockstar through happenstance. Writer-director Ran Yatim’s (Not Alone) unique premise was inspired by his travels in Mexico where he learned about the power of being present.
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