This month’s crowdfunding picks are centered around the ways love, fear, and anxiety can stop us from distinguishing between fiction and reality.
The short film “Dreamer” follows protagonist Teddy as he falls in love with a woman who isn’t real. Afflicted with Asperger’s Syndrome, Teddy finds it hard to connect to others, but when he meets a woman in his dreams, he gets past his illness and falls into obsession. How do you break someone out of fantasy and into reality?
The comedy-horror film “Afterbirth” is written and directed by Women and Hollywood intern Eboni Boykin. Inflected with humor, the short film has a spooky premise at its center. College-graduate Erika has an accident and wakes up one day to find she suddenly has a five-year-old daughter. While she tries to convince everyone around her that her reality is different, she gets further entrenched in a world of supernatural happenings.
“Lola” is about teenager Kathy, who has a dark past which comes back to haunt her. She has a secret life as a webcam stripper and survivor of abuse. When her ex-abuser threatens to come back into her life, she is forced to reconcile the two parts of her life she tried to keep separate.
Finally, Emily Dell’s short film “Helen” is a horror movie with an unseen presence that evokes fear and anxiety: perfectionism. By using the horror genre to depict how anxiety captures its victims, the film uses an innovative and entertaining approach to depicting how thoughts can haunt the mind.
Here are our May crowdfunding picks:
“Dreamer” — Written and Directed by Amanda Krupp
The ambitious team behind the film “Dreamer” has a wonderful vision about the quirky, dreamy landscape of the short film to match the its tone and content. In the film, Teddy meets Alice in his dreams, finally finding it easy to connect to someone emotionally. Teddy’s Asperger’s Syndrome distances him from his family and loved ones, and his relationship with Alice allows Teddy to explore his feelings. However, when Teddy becomes obsessed with her, what is a tender love story becomes fraught with important questions about connection, health, and love. With the tagline, “Why live when you can dream?” the film poses the ultimate question — will Teddy choose to stay inside a fantasy world where he can love and live?
You can support this film through its Indiegogo page through May 17.
“Afterbirth” — Written and Directed by Eboni Boykin
“Afterbirth” is a delightful homage to horror and comedy genres with serious intentions to reinterpret these genres from a black feminist perspective. Writer-director Eboni Boykin describes the short film as “‘Rosemary’s Baby’ meets ‘Cabin in the Woods’ meets ‘Living Single’ and ‘A Different World.’” “Afterbirth” begins with two life-altering moments for protagonist Erika (Jacqueline Nwabueze): she graduates from college and after an accident finds herself a mother to a five-year-old girl, Naila (Nashka Desrosiers). Erika’s family is convinced she has amnesia, but Erika is determined to find out how to get back from this alternate reality.
The film is raising funds for festival submissions. You can watch the film on YouTube and then donate through the Kickstarter page through May 29.
“Lola” — Written and Directed by Isabella Tan
The name “Lola” is the pseudonym of Kathy Tai (Anna Mikami), a teenager who makes a living as a webcam stripper. Kathy comes from an affluent Asian family — dinners with ambassadors and closets full of Chanel are part of her everyday life. But Kathy does not want the life set forth for her; she wants to be an artist. The character of Lola becomes a way for Kathy to deal with her parents’ high expectations and past sexual trauma that she has never fully confronted. When her ex-abuser reenters her life, Kathy’s secrets must come out in the open, threatening her image as the “prized daughter.”
You can help the film’s production on Seed&Spark through May 30.
“Helen” — Written and Directed by Emily Dell
Sisters Emily and Elizabeth Dell are the team behind “Helen,” a short horror film starring Aimee Garcia as the titular character. Unlike other horror films, the creepy creature here is not a killer or a ghost, but fear itself. Taking the phrase “fighting your demons” quite literally, Helen’s fear that she is not good enough is itself the bogeyman of the film. As the crowdfunding page notes, being “haunted by failure” is common — the Dell sisters and many other women can relate to the sometimes debilitating anxiety that comes with perfectionism. In “Helen,” the protagonist battles her fear, hoping to vanquish it for good.
To support “Helen,” visit the Seed&Spark page through June 1.
