Here's the deal...

Hey, everyone! I'm Sam, a student filmmaker based in the New York Metropolitan Area. From a young age, I've been passionate about telling surreal stories centered around social structures, ethics, and grief. I'm pictured here at the 2023 All American High School Film Festival, where I stood to promote my third short film, Palate Absentia!

During my time making movies, I've gained a ton of appreciation for the filmmaking process. It's taught me about myself, the world around me, and it's led to me picking up a few awards along the way. With your help, this next project could be my most impactful one yet!

I, and a talented crew of fellow students, are setting out to make Resurrection, a melancholic but darkly funny short film about a funeral home that can bring the dead back to life for three minutes at a time, so that they can deliver their own eulogies. Pretty cool, right?

WRONG. During one of these funerals, the deceased man appears before his grieving family in great physical pain, disgusted by his lack of agency and eager to return to his grave. In the wake of this traumatic experience, his loved ones are forced to make difficult decisions about morality and mortality (the two big -alities) as they come to terms with time's unstoppable forward march.

With its mix of deadpan humor and sadness, in conjunction with our commitment to quality filmmaking and storytelling, we believe that Resurrection will entertain and resonate with any audience member who has ever lost someone.

Which is everyone.

So What's This Thing Gonna Look/Sound Like?

When figuring out how we wanted to film Resurrection, we decided that we wanted the aesthetics of the film to reflect both the heartrending and comedic elements in equal measure.

Visually, we're employing a warm color palette to put both the characters and audience at ease-- that is, until the corpse sits up. During comedic scenes, the camera itself is smoothly-operated and oftentimes distant from our cast, shrinking them in the frame to emphasize the irony of their immense discomfort.

During dramatic scenes, though, we're going to keep the camera handheld and close to the characters. These are moments when everyone's fear of time fades a little, and they can focus on their own surface level motivations.

When it comes to our soundtrack, we are working on an original score, drawing from ethereal, psychedelic acoustic folk (think early Bon Iver, or Mount Eerie). This music's subtle, haunting melancholy compliments the bonkers premise of this film, and contrasts its dark, mournful execution.

What We Need & What You Get

When it comes to funding, we've got some good news: We've already won a grant to produce the film! 

Thanks to the David R. Ames Film Award, our production team has been awarded $1,000 to bring Resurrection's screenplay to life. This money is integral to the film's production in more ways than one; not only does it give us some of the resources we need to ensure a smooth shoot, but it also demonstrates the Award's faith in our ability to tell relatable and human stories through film.

However, while this vote of confidence goes a long way in helping our production, we need a lot more to ensure that Resurrection can live up to its potential. The money from this campaign will be used as follows:

Props: $500

Actor Fees: $950

Meals for Cast and Crew: $700

Miscellaneous: $500

Whatever remains unused at the conclusion of the film's production will go directly to Doctors Without Borders by May 15th, 2025.

Why Are We Making This?

At the very beginning of 2020, my great aunt joined the first 400 Americans claimed by the COVID-19 pandemic. As I grieved her passing, I wrote a screenplay called Vicariously  to cope. I would later turn that work into a short film that won the Visionary Award at Montclair Film's Emerging Filmmaker Competition, and official selections at Lift-Off First-Time Filmmaker Sessions and the All-American High School Film Festival.

After I finished my first-ever film, I realized that even though I had processed her death emotionally, I hadn't done so intellectually. Why do we fear death and time? Why does grief make us selfish and solipsistic? How would we react if we were given just three more minutes with our dearly departed? I wrote the screenplay for Resurrection over the course of four full years, and during that time, I learned a lot about those questions, unanswerable as they are.

Although Resurrection's premise is fantastical, the execution is grounded in authentic feelings and complicated philosophy. I believe that this story, and the film that we'll make of it, has the potential to resonate with anyone who has ever lost someone (which is everyone).

Risks & Challenges

Despite our level of expertise, we're still students! With every shoot, we learn lots about the intricacies of filmmaking. That constant process of learning means that not everything will go according to plan when it comes to pre-production, principal photography, and the editing process. However, we have an incredibly talented, passionate, and easy-to-work-with crew onboard, and with their help, I am confident that missteps will be few and far between!

Other Ways You Can Help

If you can't financially support the project, that's completely fine! However, we'd really appreciate it if you'd share the page with your friends and family-- whether you donate or not. Word of mouth is really important for both crowdfunding efforts and student film productions!