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Ruth’s (Marceline Hugot) feelings are as raw as the meat she’s massaging for dinner. Stuck on an endless hold trying to transfer a bill to her name after her husband’s death, insult turns to injury when her son leaves her unbearably alone. She goes to start the grill, but it’s just another painful reminder of her husband’s absence. She flings the raw chicken onto the grill’s cold surface.
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At her wit's end, she ventures out into her idyllic suburban neighborhood. She loses herself, wandering with the hold music tinkering along, hands covered in marinade.
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Right as her phone informs her she’s next to speak with a representative, she stumbles on another woman lying in a driveway?! Didi (68) appears to need help, but brusquely pushes Ruth away. She says she is a lawn ornament. When Ruth reluctantly goes to leave, Didi abruptly shifts gears, asking to use Ruth’s phone. But Ruth can’t hang up now...and she can’t leave either!
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What ensues is an absurd conversation between two women in different shades of crisis, plus a very confused customer service representative. In the end, Ruth, Didi and even the Customer Service Rep improbably help one another get unstuck. Didi finds her footing, and Ruth takes hold of the call.
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Grief is queer. Many of us at one point or another have felt our lives suddenly placed on hold by some kind of disaster. These are “What now?” moments where the world as we knew it abruptly halts its reliable turn. Everything feels queer, strange—even things that felt normal yesterday. That queer feeling is grief.
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In these instances where things do not work as they should, we are also given an opportunity to reexamine our world and who we thought we were within it. An identity shift, a Queering. And that can feel surreal as all hell.
Yet, moments like these—of rupture and adaptation—are part of what it means to be human in our weird, wonderful world. Ruth’s story, of a life upended and a self-reconfigured, is one for us all. This is Ruth’s coming-of-age story, as she approaches 70.
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For us, the visuals are SO important to communicate the surreal disjunct that is Ruth's experience of grief. We are planning to use the ARRI Alexa 35 for its film-like quality. Mixed-era props and costumes will play with the confusion of memories and the accumulation of experiences and things that make up a shared life.
The quiet, muted colors of Ruth's home will suddenly change into bright, surreal colors that pop. Aspect ratio will widen to emphasize the absences that surround Ruth and Didi, and then compress to emphasize their unlikely entanglement.
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LIZZY DE VITA | Co-Creator/Co-Writer/Director
Lizzy is an artist, writer and filmmaker whose work focuses on human interdependency. They received a BA from Barnard in English and Art History, and an MFA from Yale in Sculpture. They have screened and performed their work at a diverse range of venues, including the National Museum of the Moving Image, The Connolly Theater and The Andy Warhol Museum. They were a recent resident in Art Beyond Sight’s Artists & Disability Residency (2021) and was a Disability Forward Fellow (2019).
SARAH GREENBAUM | Co-Creator/Co-Writer/Director of Photography
Sarah is a Brooklyn-based filmmaker and cinematographer. Classical training at Russian Academy of Art in Florence lay the groundwork for Greenbaum’s sensitive and incisive approach to cinematography. She graduated from the NYU Kanbar Institute for Film & TV in 2022, where among other accolades she was recipient of the Volker Bahnemann/ARRI Award for Outstanding Cinematography and the Christopher Smithers Documentary Award.
HANNAH D. KETTERING | Producer
Hannah D. Kettering is a writer, director and producer. Prior to Mongoose, she produced large scale events at Agency EA, and branded digital and live media content at UCB Digital. Hannah started out as an assistant at the entertainment law firm Sloss Eckhouse Dasti Haynes LawCo LLP. She has written and directed a number of shorts and is a member of the 2112 Chicago Music, Film, Tech Incubator with a focus on building the independent film community in the Midwest.
PETRUS VAN STADEN | Producer
Petrus is a South African filmmaker based in Cape Town. In 2019 he co-founded Vanishing Elephant with Tebogo Malebogo driven by a desire to tell meaningful stories. Passionate about diversity, collaboration and finding ways to uplift marginalized stories, he consistently seeks ways to tell those stories authentically. He has been part of productions that have been selected to Locarno, SXSW, Sundance, IFFR, Clermont-Ferrand and New Directors New Films.
CAROLINE DUNPHY | Co-Producer/Script Editor
Caroline Dunphy is a 3x nominated, 1x Emmy winning producer; she is also a PGA nominated producer. Her previous work includes Full Frontal with Samatha Bee, The Daily Show with Trevor Noah, The Late Show with Stephen Colbert, The Opposition with Jordan Klepper, and The President Show. She currently works as a Digital Producer at Crooked Media. In her free time, she loves screaming that she's from Chicago and drinking Miller Lite in her new home of the sunshine state.
DEZ SAVINI | Co-Producer/Script Editor
Dez Savini is a writer, producer, performer, and artist. She’s worked on projects for Comedy Central, Adult Swim, FX, HBO, and Netflix and her films have screened at SXSW, Palm Springs, and New Hampshire Film Festival. She was a recipient of the 2017 National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences EMMY️ College Scholarship. Other projects include The Dream for FXX’s Cake on Hulu and S.T.A.R.H.A.W.K.S. for Adult Swim’s Smalls. She is currently working on shows for The Annoyance Theater in Chicago. She’s a vegan tarot-reading, Jag-driving, film photography enthusiast who can pour a Guinness.
JESSICA LI | Associate Producer
Jess is a producer, writer, and director currently pursuing her MFA/MBA dual degree at NYU. Jessica received her Bachelor’s from Princeton University and moved onto working in management consulting, before migrating to film. She produced Swim Captain, which recently premiered at the RiverRun International Film Festival. She aspires to tell stories that invite audiences into novel perspectives while feeling strangely familiar.
DALE BROWN | Casting Director
Dale Brown’s 20+ years of casting spans all mediums, heavily focusing on theater. Recent off-Broadway productions include Our Brother’s Son; Life Jacket Theatre’s current development project, Gorgeous Nothings and their acclaimed production of America Is Hard to See; and Daddy Long Legs (Drama Desk nom.). Regional credits include premiers of New Age, Things I Know To Be True and the upcoming Run Bambi Run (Milwaukee Rep.), Sense & Sensibility (Chicago Shakespeare), Disgraced (Syracuse Stage); In The Heights (Seattle Rep) and 2 Pianos 4 Hands (Cincinnati Playhouse), Lives of Reason (Two River Theater). With Steward/Whitley, Dale cast the
tour of Kathleen Marshall’s Tony winning production of Anything Goes. In his 5+ years with Tara Rubin Casting, Dale’s work included maintaining the North American companies of The Phantom of the Opera and Billy Elliot and work on the Broadway productions of A Little Night Music, Jesus Christ Superstar, Guys & Dolls and Old Jews Telling Jokes off-Broadway. Dale is on the faculty of Stella Adler Studios and has taught for many university programs teaching audition technique. Dale is a member of the Casting Society of America and an honors graduate of Kalamazoo College and the BESGL Theater Program in London.
ROSS SHENKER | Co-Producer and Casting Director
Ross Shenker is a New York City based Casting Director for film, television, and theater. He is currently an Associate Casting Director at Kate Geller Casting where he has worked on films such as CORA BORA (SXSW selection w/ Meg Stalter), MOLLI & MAX IN THE FUTURE (SXSW selection w/ Zosia Mamet), DRUGSTORE JUNE (dir. Nicholaus Goossen), THE FRONT ROOM (A24), and many others. His primary focus is on both studio and independent films and scripted episodic podcasts. He holds a BA in Theater & Jewish Studies from Wesleyan University and an MFA in Performance Studies from the University of Louisville. He worked at the Agency for the Performing Arts (APA) for 3 years in their Comedy Talent, Television Talent, and Motion Picture Talent Divisions. He has also worked for Warner Brothers, Innovative Artists Agency, Affirmative Entertainment, and Sargent Hall Productions.
SADRA TEHRANI | Production Designer
Sadra Tehrani is an Iranian-born Set and Production Designer based in New York City. His past design and film work has been featured in the New York Times, Broadway World, and TimeOut NY and awarded in various national and international festivals. He’s intrigued by stories that explore concepts of belonging and alienation and characters who are inconspicuous outliers. With a Masters in Architecture from Penn State University, he deeply appreciates a well-thought-out construction detail. Space and Sound are the main drivers in his approach to design, and his ultimate joy is experiencing the synergy between a film’s production design and its score.
JASMINE LEWIS | Costume Designer
Jasmine Lewis is an interdisciplinary designer who merges art and fashion through form and material exploration. Her unique garments and accessories make a statement in any wardrobe and are meant to empower the wearer and celebrate individuality. Jasmine is currently an MFA Candidate in the Department of Design for Stage & Film at NYU Tisch School of the Arts.
CHAD RAINES | Composer
Chad Raines, composer, performer and sound designer from Dallas, Texas. In New York his work has been featured at Soho Rep, Roundabout Underground, Here Arts Center, Jack Performing Arts Center, Target Margin, The Baryshnikov Arts Center, The Ontological, The New Ohio, La Mama, Moliere in the Park, The Public Theatre’s Under the Radar Festival, Bard Summerscape as well as Regional and College Theaters such as Bard’s Fisher Center, Princeton’s Berlind Theatre, Long Island University, Brown/Trinity, Oregon Shakespeare Festival, Barnard and Brooklyn College and more.
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