This is a short feature (35 minutes) intended for the festival circuit and then broader distribution.
Please note that this short film has an AIP budget.
Based on family history and the imaginings of a mother & son creative duo – the story aims to depict mental illness through a perspective yet unseen - where characters can speak to their experience in retrospect – with restored clarity through death’s filter. This is a great unique and special opportunity for performers who feel a connection to the subject matter, who are eager to draw from personal experience for the role and to work with a team, for whom the film is "Based on what we hope is a true story."
WILLIAM and VALERIE'S lives are thrown into turmoil when an undiagnosed mental illness claims VALERIE. As they each struggle to cope in their own way, Valerie's gradual deterioration leads them through life-altering challenges, ultimately dragging them down to a painful and unreconciled end.
The end however, is not the end when - with a little help from Valerie’s spirited sister JANICE, and their equally lively FATHER - the damaged couple reconnect in the afterlife to fulfill a final vow - giving themselves one more chance to heal and finally find peace before eternity accepts them.
Based on family history and the imaginings of a mother & son creative duo – the story aims to depict mental illness through a perspective yet unseen - where characters can speak to their experience in retrospect – with restored clarity through death’s filter. *This is a great unique and special opportunity for performers who feel a connection to the subject matter, who are eager to draw from personal experience for the role and to work with a team, for whom the film is "Based on what we hope is a true story."
| Role type | Role | Gender & Age range |
| Lead | VALERIE | Female 58 - 69 Years old |
Description Having survived a traumatic relationship and soul-fracturing divorce, Valerie has been married to William, a kind, steady and deeply supportive man, for 35 years — a lifetime of shared memories, quiet joys, and challenges. With her daughter and a modest lake home, they work consistently at building a simple life together, grounded, and real. On the surface, Valerie has appeared composed, appreciative and even happy sometimes. Still carrying the beauty and presence she had in her youth, there’s a softness and vulnerability to her. It’s not weakness. It’s a kind of quiet resilience honed through years of holding it together. But beneath that, is the fragility of a woman quietly unraveling. She’s lived much of her life with an inner war few can see. A mental illness—insidious, patient—has slowly chipped away at her self-worth, despite the love that surrounds her. She is both a fighter and a victim — of her genetics, her past, and her own relentless inner critic. Although she's suffered, she continues to fight. Hard. Therapy, routines, hope, tears, and sometimes glimpses of real joy. — Valerie has tried. And sometimes, she wins. Sometimes, there’s light. But the spiral always returns, darker and more isolating. She loves William. She knows he loves her. And perhaps that’s what hurts most—that even his steadfast love hasn’t been enough to silence the voices in her head. She is tired. And in that exhaustion lies both danger and a tragic kind of grace. This role requires nuanced emotional range, subtlety, and a grounded, authentic performance. Looking for performers who can portray both strength and fragility, often simultaneously and to carry complex inner turmoil with subtlety and strength. Note: This is a character-driven piece with emotionally intense scenes. Submitted Performers should be comfortable exploring themes of mental health, emotional vulnerability, and long-term psychological struggle. | ||
| Role type | Role | Gender & Age range |
| Lead | WILLIAM | Male 58 - 64 Years old |
Description William is a dependable, hard-working man who’s built a modest but comfortable life with Valerie, his wife of 35 years and the love of his life. Caring and supportive, he helped raise her daughter as his own, and remains deeply devoted to family, making annual trips to visit their now-grown daughter and grandchildren, despite the distance. With retirement on the horizon, they had savings, and dreams to travel. Although their marriage has held challenges for the couple, with Valerie often struggling to keep her past in the past, William has been a rock in her chaotic, emotional world, keeping them focused on the life they are building together, not the one that came before.Marriage was supposed to be a new beginning—for both of them. But when Valerie's illness derails everything, and it becomes clear their golden years won’t unfold as hoped, bitterness—so foreign to William—starts to surface. Deeply devoted to his wife, the strain of watching her slowly slip away, despite every effort to hold on, is taking its toll. As months pass in a blur of sleepless nights, medical trials, and hard decisions, William’s greatest battle becomes emotional: learning to aim his grief at the illness, not the woman he loves. His journey is one of quiet endurance, guilt, loyalty tested, and the painful, persistent fight to preserve love in the face of slow loss. This role requires the ablity to convey complex emotion with restraint—grief, loyalty, quiet frustration—without ever tipping into melodrama, allowing the internal struggle to surface in small but powerful ways. | ||