And that's all there is to it. Thanks for your kind donations and spreading the word. It means the worlds to us! 

MEET THE FILMMAKERS

Bessy Adut - Director/Producer/Co-Writer for POC

Award-winning Writer/Director Bessy’s short films have screened at international film festivals worldwide, and won audience awards including Pasadena Art Film Festival and Brooklyn Film Festival. In 2009, she graduated from California Institute of the Arts, MFA in Film Directing with Fulbright Grant. Last year, she received screenwriting program certificate at UCLA. She was selected for the CineStory Writers Retreat as a Quarterfinalist and nominated for Nate Wilson Joie de Vivre Award. She is working on making a proof of concept of short film before her first directorial feature debut. Xenia and Bessy met at UCLA Professional Screenwriting program and that became the beginning of their friendship & collaboration.  They believed in this project and pieces started to come together.

Xenia Purrigros - Screenwriter

Xenia is a filmmaker/screenwriter from Barcelona, where she studied her BA in Film and TV. After that she left for London to further her filmmaking studies, and she stayed there for four years working in film development and production. When one of her short films was bought and made by an independent production company, she decided it was time to focus her efforts on her passion, writing. She moved to Los Angeles for a year to do a feature screenwriting course in UCLA and came out with two features under her arm. Now she lives in Barcelona, pursuing her career as a writer. 

Nicole P - Producer 

Colin Costello - Producer 

I am an Emmy-nominated, award winning screenwriter/director/producer and proud member of the WGA. Colin has two family features under his belt – “The Stream” (2013) and “Alternate Universe” (2017). He wrote two episodes two episodes for 2015 PBSKids Emmy-nominated series, “Moochie Kalala Detectives Club.” He was the writer and producer of the award-winning DC Comics fan film, "Committed." Colin has just wrapped production on his directorial debut - a short psychological thriller called, "The After Party." A Chicago native, Colin now resides in Los Angeles.

Yin Lui - Editor 

Yin Lui is a picture editor from San Francisco who currently resides in Los Angeles, California. With over 15 years experience in the industry, and credits in nationally broadcasted commercials and web spots, she is using her storytelling skills in narrative work to create entertaining, compelling, and unique stories.  She is currently available for freelance projects.

Bessy met Yin as she was looking for more narrative work to edit. Yin had amazing commercial reel. She jumped on board warming up with the Indiegogo intro video and she will be the editor of our short film and trailer.

Jess Foster - Web Designer 

Hi, I'm Jess. I own Imagine Higher LLC, a web design company based in Greenville, South Carolina. I enjoy building websites to help small businesses and creative professionals achieve their goals. In my leisure time, I love to watch films, whether they are black-and-white classics, thought-provoking documentaries, or international productions. As a film lover, I'm thrilled to be able to help my friend Bessy Adut raise money and awareness for her first short film "Escape Room."

Serhat Sonmez - Storyboard Artist

Serhat Sonmez is a Turkish -American artist and illustrator currently based in Los Angeles, California. In 2003, he graduated from Marmarian Institute of Fine-Arts ( Istanbul ), with a BFA in Painting and Sculpting! He also dabbled in teaching as a fine arts teacher and teaching private art classes. His work is driven by making a strong visual impact by combining various styles and techniques as a way to follow an idea and in clarifying the content of each project.

The day after Sandy and Bessy came up with a shot list and talking about a storyboard, Serhat wrote to Bessy on Linkedin! Serhat did the first storyboard pages, poster and concept art that you see on the page.

MEET OUR CAST

Jolie Vanier as Ana

Jolie Vanier began her movie career as lead actress in Robert Rodriguez's film "Shorts" for Warner Brothers. Her performance in this lively, light-hearted film earned critical acclaim. Jolie earned a reoccurring role in the dark, compelling vampire TV series "From Dusk Till Dawn". Her most recent role was in "Chasing Grace", a film that has been featured in the South by Southwest Film Festival and many other notable festivals. It should be noted that throughout her career Jolie has complemented film appearances with theater roles.

Fun fact: Bessy and Jolie worked together years ago on Bessy’s graduation thesis short film from CalArts “Strange Little Girl” The film has been successful proving Bessy’s storytelling skills and Jolie’s talent as an actress. Who knew they’d come back together to work on another project after 9 years. When Bessy was looking for her lead, Jolie was at the perfect age and appearance for the character.

Laurelle Mabalot as Camilla

Laurelle Mabalot is an actress/dancer from Los Angeles, CA, and has been in the industry for 12 years. She is currently pursuing her Bachelor's degree in English to expand to screenwriting in the future.

Nicoletta Hynes as Alexa

Nicoletta Hynes is an Italian-American actress with a passion for creative writing and beguiling plots. Although LA born and raised, she studied in New York City at the New School for 5 years. Acting isn't her only passion, she also sings jazz and writes stories of her own.

Emma Freyre as Hostess of Escape Room

My name is Emma Freyre. I am 20 years old and I was born in raised in Colorado Springs, Colorado. I will be a graduate of the American Academy of Dramatic Arts in the spring of 2018, and will continue pursuing my acting career from there.

Brett Schaberg as Chad

Since my first show in high school I knew I was going to be an actor. I committed to attending Western Michigan University and auditioned for their competitive acting program. After two years at WMU I decided that I was ready to make the move to LA and pursue TV and film. I am stoked to be apart of this project, and can't wait to start working on it.

Alfredo Soto as Kapil

My name is Alfredo Soto, my love for film began at a small age when me & my family would watch movies every Saturday & come home and rate them as if we were critics. Then acting would take over my life when me, the shy kid was forced to play Julius Caesar in my high school theater to get my A in class.