Dear friends,
For the past year, I’ve been working on a special film, The Last Days on Lake Trinity. As I enter the home stretch, I need to raise some money, and I’d love for you to be part of this project.
In 2022, I set out to shoot a documentary about an urgent but underreported social crisis: the disappearance of affordable mobile home parks. I embedded in Lakeside Park Estates, a small Florida trailer park that had been slated for closure, with the intention of capturing its final months. As I came to know the residents, the film grew to be about so much more.
The Last Days on Lake Trinity is a short documentary (30-40 min) that follows three incredible women who were longtime residents of the park: Nancy F., Nancy S., and Laurie. The film tells the moving story of their friendship, their fight for justice, and their search for new homes. In chronicling the joy and sorrow of these singular women, the film explores broader themes of aging, loneliness, and financial insecurity amid a national affordable housing crisis.
Our leading ladies are social outsiders. One of the Nancys affectionately describes herself and her two friends as “oddballs, misfits, weirdos.” They are single and childless, relying on each other and their neighbors for community and support. For one of them, homelessness is a very real possibility. They are also joyful, funny, fierce and generous.
Spending time with them, I often didn’t know whether to laugh or to cry. I sought to capture this feeling on camera, documenting a series of intimate, whimsical, and, at times, heartbreaking moments.
I really love these women, and I am so excited to share their story with you and the world. But I need your help to make this a reality. Please consider joining the team and becoming a champion of the film with a financial contribution.
Thank you!
With love,
Charlotte
CONTEXT
The Last Days on Lake Trinity is set against the backdrop of an often-neglected component of the affordable housing crisis. 6% of Americans live in mobile homes, about half of which are located in trailer parks. Though trailer parks have long provided one of the nation’s largest sources of affordable housing, these communities are rapidly becoming unaffordable, or else disappearing altogether, contributing to a mounting wave of displacement.
Most residents of trailer parks own their homes but rent the land underneath. Because the majority of mobile homes are essentially immobile – they would not survive relocation intact, or else the process would be prohibitively expensive for the owners – when the land beneath a trailer park changes hands, residents can lose everything.
Older Americans on fixed income are particularly vulnerable here. It’s not uncommon for older adults to spend the lion’s share of their savings to purchase a mobile home, planning for their retirement based on a low monthly land lease. The share of older Americans facing housing insecurity and even homelessness has drawn widespread concern, with the Wall Street Journal reporting recently that “old people on fixed incomes are overwhelmed by the high cost of housing and other financial shocks” at levels “not seen since the Great Depression.”
For the documentary’s three central characters, who are all senior citizens, this national trend is an immediate, terrifying reality. As they grapple with the park’s closure and begin looking for new homes, a national housing crisis is illustrated in vivid, devastating detail.
JOIN THE TEAM and SPREAD THE WORD
On December 31st, 2022, Lakeside Park Estates closed for good, and our filming came to an end. That night, Laurie set off firecrackers to ring in the new year, celebrating a new beginning. As she struck a match, she thanked the universe for her Lakeside friends — now scattered across the state and the country — and lit the ceremonial fuse. It was a beautiful final scene to shoot.
We went on to secure substantial funding that has enabled us to hire a superb editor, Penelope Falk, and begin editing the film. Now, as we enter the home stretch, we’re in need of essential funding to cover finishing costs and bring this project across the finish line.
The money we’re raising will go toward paying our editor, sound mixing, color correction, music composing, legal review, and submission to the best international film festivals.
By giving any amount, you’ll receive regular production updates and be invited to participate in an impact campaign around the film. Donations of $100 will receive special thanks in the film's credits. Funders who give donations of $1,000 or more will be featured in the film’s credits, sent an invitation to give feedback on the documentary as we near the end of the editing process, and have the opportunity to participate in events for the film around its release. If you are interested in financially backing the film at an executive level, please contact me directly: charlottecooley01@gmail.com.
If you are unable to give, you can help by spreading the word, sharing the Indiegogo link with family and friends, or otherwise engaging in the larger conversation around affordable housing scarcity.
THE TEAM
Director/Producer: Charlotte Cooley
The Last Days on Lake Trinity will be Charlotte Cooley's directorial debut. Most recently, she co-produced Keep Sweet: Pray and Obey (Netflix, 2022). In addition to The Last Days, Charlotte is currently producing and co-directing a Netflix docuseries. Other credits include Slay the Dragon (Magnolia Pictures, 2020), George W. Bush (PBS American Experience, 2019) and Woodstock: Three Days that Defined a Generation (PBS/Netflix, 2019).
Editor: Penelope Falk
Penelope Falk has been editing documentaries for over 20 years. She is the recipient of the Sundance Excellence in Editing award. Film credits include Keep Sweet: Pray and Obey (Netflix, 2022), Found (Netflix 2021), Step (winner of the 2017 Sundance Jury Prize for Inspirational Filmmaking, 2018 NAACP Image Award), and many more.
Director of Photography: Nicolas Ramey
Nicolas Ramey is an award winning cinematographer from New Orleans. He has been a camera operator on over a hundred narrative films, and now focuses on documentary cinematography. Notable documentary work includes Netflix’s docuseries Keep Sweet: Pray and Obey, Sundance winner and Oscars shortlist nominated Descendant, and Hulu’s Slay the Dragon.
Executive Producer: Rachel Dretzin | Ark Media
Rachel Dretzin is co-founder and partner of Brooklyn-based Ark Media. An Emmy and Peabody-winning filmmaker, Rachel recently directed the IDA-nominated Netflix limited series Keep Sweet: Pray and Obey, which debuted as the second-most watched show in the U.S. at the time of its release. Before that, Rachel directed Who Killed Malcolm X (Netflix, 2020), among other films.
The Last Days on Lake Trinity is a story that needs to be told, and it can’t come to life without community support. Please consider giving, and thank you so much for your help!