Logline
When Dorothy is reunited with her family for a funeral, she must come to terms with her own mortality while struggling to reconnect with her granddaughter.
Synopsis
![Dorothy]()
Sweet Young Thing follows Dorothy, a strong-willed, aging woman, as she navigates her own mortality under the backdrop of a funeral and a reunion with her family. Her granddaughter Delaney, a 19-year-old college student studying music, comes to the funeral expecting to reconnect with her grandmother. While Delaney is no stranger to grief, she does not understand why her grandmother appears to be distancing herself. With her health in decline and a hidden diagnosis, Dorothy struggles in silence, feeling the need to protect Delaney by withholding her secret. ![Delaney]()
Through her interactions at home with her family, the story explores Dorothy’s inner world–her pride, regret, and quiet resilience–alongside her relationships, especially with Delaney, who is determined to keep their relationship as it has always been. The two share a love of music that allows them to communicate in ways that words alone cannot. Their interactions reveal a generational gap, unresolved grief, and unspoken love between them. Through an emotional and tender journey, Sweet Young Thing explores the quiet resilience required to face life's inevitable changes, with music serving as both a bridge and a reflection of Dorothy and Delaney’s relationship.
What the Money Will Do
![Pie Chart]()
Crew: For paying the crew as well as covering travel for out-of-towners
Casting: This goes towards hiring a casting director, lead cast, and travel costs
Food: Feeding the crew and talent is important! This goes to meals as well as on set drinks and snacks
Production Design: Funding for costumes, sets, set dressing, and props
Filming Locations: Used to secure a location scout for finding the locations or a location fee to rent them
Equipment Rentals: We own the majority of the equipment we will be using but additional equipment funds will go towards a generator for outdoor power, lenses, or additional equipment we do not own.
Meet The Team
![Ava 2]()
Ava Farrar is writer and filmmaker born and based in St. Louis, Missouri. She graduated in 2024 from Washington University with a Bachelor's in Film & Media Studies with a production concentration. She also studied abroad in 2022 at The Film and TV School of the Academy of Performing Arts (FAMU) in Prague where she wrote and directed a film shot on 16mm film. In 2024, Ava had 3 films featured in the St. Louis Filmmakers Showcase, with her film Thicker Than Blood winning “Best Student Film” and going on to be featured in the 2024 St. Louis International Film Festival. She joined Mercury Films as a Junior Editor and Production Coordinator, giving her opportunities to hone her filmmaking talents in all stages of production. Ava is thrilled to have the chance to create Sweet Young Thing alongside a team of talented filmmakers and can’t wait to bring the heartfelt story to life.
![elle 2]()
Hélène Lawing is a Producer and Editor at Mercury Films. For the past three years, she has kept Mercury Films' corporate and commercial productions running smoothly with her sharp organization and dedication to quality storytelling. She has spent several years honing her craft in both documentary and narrative filmmaking. She has produced two compelling documentaries, Distracted and Rise of the Wild Woman, showcasing her ability to capture real-life stories with depth and authenticity. Hélène was a producer on the Mercury Films’ feature-length indie film Greg’s Going to Rehab. She is a graduate of the University of Central Florida with a BFA in Film.
![Chris Headshot]()
Chris Lawing is an award-winning filmmaker with over 25 years of directing, shooting and editing experience in film, video and broadcast content. As a cinematographer, Chris has shot two feature films, a number of short films and countless commercials. His aesthetic is rooted in naturalism and realism with a goal to capture moments in a compelling and appealing fashion, but in a way that does not call attention to itself. Prior to starting his production company, Chris worked as a feature film editor and assistant editor including Pixar's Monsters Inc. and Showtime's The Settlement. Chris has directed and produced hundreds of commercials, television episodes, documentaries, short films as well as the feature film, Penitentia. He has earned numerous recognitions for his work as well as screenings and awards at dozens of film festivals.
Director's Statement
When my grandmother passed away in 2020, I struggled for some time to process her absence. She had a larger-than-life personality–always prepared to talk your ear off and let you hear her latest outlandish take–but despite all her eccentricities, she had a unique ability to unite our family. As the youngest of my cousins, I wasn’t the closest with my grandma, but I loved and admired her, especially her musical talents. She was a lifelong folk and bluegrass musician–she played the dulcimer, guitar, banjo, canjo, jawharp, and sang–and made sure that her passion was passed down to her four sons. I spent my life watching her nurture musical interests in my dad and uncles, and in myself and my cousins. She came to every hometown show my dad played, even if she had to wear her earplugs, and hired my cousin’s band to play a family reunion. She customized their band t-shirts with hand-sewn pockets for her handkerchiefs, and transplanted collars from other shirts to make hers unique. I never got a chance to ask her what music meant to her and what it meant to the family, but these moments paint a picture of her love and the importance music had in it.
With Sweet Young Thing, I wanted to focus on this love and how it weathers any issues that might arise in a grandparent/grandchild relationship. There were many things about myself I felt I could never share with my grandma (my sexuality being one), and many aspects of her personality I just didn’t understand. Along with this feeling, in the final stretch of her life, I was maturing and becoming aware of the challenges in my family, but all the while felt out of the loop, especially when it came to learning of her cancer diagnosis. In this film, I hope to lean into realistic emotion and visual style to capture the ways a family withholds information to protect a child, while exploring how a hurtful revelation doesn’t need to harm a relationship, but can strengthen it.
I believe this type of disconnect is common with a lot of grandchildren and their grandparents–you feel you can’t share everything about yourself with each other, but despite that the love you share remains. I hope that Sweet Young Thing creates a space for viewers to think about the persistence of love in their lives, with family or friends, and encourages them to view their loved ones with care, compassion, and the transcendence of an old folk song.
The Impact
Sweet Young Thing is a film created by female filmmakers committed to telling stories of the lives and experiences of women. More specifically, it is a film that follows the experiences of an elderly woman who is staring down her own mortality–a demographic and topic too often overlooked in mainstream filmmaking. Despite some recent societal advancements towards gender equality, disparities in the film industry remain an issue. A 2023 study revealed that of the top films of the year, female characters had only about a third of speaking roles–a dilemma certainly related to the gender disparity in top positions such as directors, writers, and producers. Issues of female representation are compounded when looking at portrayals of older women. For example, ”actresses over 60…comprised only 7% of all females in the top-grossing films of 2023.” While your support of Sweet Young Thing cannot reverse these larger issues of gender imbalance, your contributions will have a direct impact on our ability to showcase our filmmaking talents and share this important story.
While we are committed to this project to increase representation, this is also a deeply personal story, with moments based on Ava’s own experiences with her grandmother who passed away from cancer. By basing our narrative around Dorothy, a woman facing her own mortality and the impact it has on her family, we hope to create a space where viewers can see parts of themselves or their grief in the faces on screen. Additionally, we hope to highlight our own hometown and state by filming in St. Louis, Missouri. As a film market, this region has been underutilized for too long, but with recent tax incentives that is set to change. Through Sweet Young Thing, we hope to be a part of this movement and bring attention to the resources and powerful Midwestern community of our home city.
![H]()
Sweet Young Thing follows Dorothy, a strong-willed, aging woman, as she navigates her own mortality under the backdrop of a funeral and a reunion with her family. Her granddaughter Delaney, a 19-year-old college student studying music, comes to the funeral expecting to reconnect with her grandmother. While Delaney is no stranger to grief, she does not understand why her grandmother appears to be distancing herself. With her health in decline and a hidden diagnosis, Dorothy struggles in silence, feeling the need to protect Delaney by withholding her secret. 
