It is career day at Lakeside Elementary School and among vets, firefighters, and dancers one child sticks out: Madeline the Exorcist. When a class photo reveals that Toby the guinea pig has red eyes, Madeline must convince the other kids to join her in curing his demonic possession. As the kids go on their adventure, we find the reasoning behind Madeline’s strange goals; she hopes that with enough practice she will someday be able to exorcise her emotionally abusive father. 

While the representation of women in film is improving as a whole, we find that a demographic that is overlooked is that of prepubescent girls. Childhood is one of the most impactful and psychologically complicated times in a person's life, and while films like "We Need To Talk About Kevin" and "Lord of The Flies" effectively explore the compelling topic of the inherent darkness in children, they do this exclusively through male protagonists. In contrast, young girls in film are often one-dimensional and almost always representative of an epitomal naivité or innocence to be corrupted. 

This contrast in representation implies that the struggle with morality is solely one that men go through, something that is both untrue and problematic for young women that cannot adhere to the monochrome portrayal of the female psyche. 

Our protagonist, Madeline George, is a young girl that has been hurt as an innocent and is now struggling with the desire to hurt anther innocent herself. We believe that creating this film is important as it is character study of a dynamic female lead that finds the strength to stop the cycle of abuse she is close to furthering.

Kamila Daurenova is a senior in Tisch studying Film and Television. Dropping out of the Presidential pre-med program of Kazakhstan, Kamila has since written and directed several films mostly in the dark-comedy genre. She is also an avid editor, having previously worked as a Technical Assistant at MTV and currently interning in the post-production department of Saturday Night Live. Her most recent film "LOOP" recently won a Niklas Kalborg Production Fund at the New Visions and Voices Festival which is going towards this project. As a bi-racial immigrant from Kazakhstan she is very passionate about telling the stories of underdog and underrepresented protagonists. 

With an ensemble child cast, three locations, and several car, water and fire scenes we have an amazing team of producers to help with the challenges of the shoot:

Olivia Krueger is an NYC based producer originally from Nashville, TN. She has experience within the camera, sound, G&E, and art departments of production but finds producing is her passion. Angie Urrea is a Junior from Florida that has produced several intermediate narrative films and is currently working on three advanced films while minoring in Environmental Science and trying to minimise the waste and energy used on film sets.  Bethany Huang is a sophomore in Film & TV who has most frequently worked as a Production Designer. Aside from her studies at NYU, she also works at a training center for children. Spencer Collantes is a Sophomore at Tisch that has been a producer for the feature-length documentary Grounded: The Roots of Revolution, which has been shot throughout North America and China. 

Idil Eryürekli is a Turkish director of photography and a 1st AC based in New York City. In the past two years, she’s 1st AC’d more than 15 thesis films and a feature length film, DP'd numerous intermediates, the Advanced TV pilot Something Bigger, and is preparing to shoot 3 Advanced films.

Hyeseung Kim is a junior concentrating in animation & VFX that loves to use her interest in fine arts and illustration for production design. She is also interested in music and games design. Born to Argentinian parents, Camila Grimaldi comes from a rich multicultural background that influences her projects. Aside from film, Camila loves theatre and traveling, and hopes that her career will allow her to merge all three of her passions. 

What your money goes to:

With an ensemble cast of 7-year old actors, our shooting hours are shortened by half and we have to film for more days which spikes up our transportation, location, and equipment rental costs, as well as meaning that we have to provide food not only for the children, but also for their parents. Our story weaves together all the aspects of Madeline's life, so we need to rent three locations: her school, her house, and her family's car, which all request maintenance fees and a hefty rate to accommodate our cast and crew of 30 people. With live animals, a scene with water, and lots of children it is an incredibly complicated film to pull off, but your contribution will help make this film a reality.

While half of the film is light-hearted and comedic, it is grounded in heavy subject matter that we take very seriously. Child mental health and abuse is a difficult subject to tackle in a short film, however we have faith that we can do so, and are working tirelessly to make sure everything runs smoothly.

We believe that this is a very important story to tell, and with your help we will be able to do that! Even if you can't donate, we are incredibly grateful if you can share this campaign!