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Logline

A woman hires a photographer to document her estranged family’s last day with their dying matriarch, but her sister is running late.

Synopsis

Monica has always longed for the approval of her narcissistic mother. In one final grand gesture, she hires a neophyte photographer — who would be out of her depth at a senior photos session — to take pictures of her family with their dying matriarch. Personalities clash when they must wait for Rose, the favorite child, who has not shown up.

Vanitas is a darkly comic exploration of art, memory, and a family reconciling their expectations of each other with reality.

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Meet the Filmmakers

Lucy Gamades – Writer/Director/Producer
Lucy’s love of filmmaking began in high school, when a teacher expressed shock that none of the students in his class — at a small school in suburban Texas — had ever seen Danny Boyle’s Trainspotting. She immediately watched it, and since then, Lucy has worked on both film and theatrical works. She has worked full-time for The History Channel, producing and doing post-production for countless Clio and Promax award-winning promos. Her prior credits include: directing Annie Baker’s Pulitzer-winning play, The Flick;  directing music videos for Brooklyn musician, Emma Jayne; and writing/producing the award-winning short film, A Little Tent. 

Mike Ferlita – Producer
Michael is a New Jersey native and graduate of Rutgers University. He recently produced the award-winning short film A Little Tent. In addition to film production, Michael has traveled to over thirty countries to deliver a variety of performances for multi-million dollar companies. 

Alexa Carroll – Director of Photography
Alexa Carroll is a New York City-based filmmaker. Since graduating Drexel University in 2016 with a Bachelor’s in Film Production, Alexa has gone on to work on diverse projects including narrative, documentary, music video, and dance/movement based films, among others. She has a passion for long form projects, starting with her first feature 2016 film, Dwelling. More recently, Alexa served as 2nd Unit DP for the feature film Best Summer Ever, which took home the Special Jury Award at SXSW in 2020. Alexa’s passion for merging filmmaking with travel shows up in her work with projects like Ave Maria, a documentary that began in wake of Hurricane Maria and unpacks the agriculture and history of Puerto Rico, and Dayam, a long form collaborative character study with and about a trans woman from Oaxaca, Mexico. Additional DP credits include a Vimeo staff pick music video for MEWITHOUTYOU, Snail Mail’s Ben Franklin video and commercial work for clients including Vogue, Coach, CVS, Moderna, DL1961 and Lands’ End. Alexa enjoys speaking Spanish and hopes to someday work on a more international scale with artists from all over the world. alexanotthecamera.com

Ryan Leibowitz – Line Producer
Ryan Leibowitz is a line producer & editor based in the “Taylor Ham” half of NJ. His recent LP credits include Nobody’s Home (2023) & Kevin Interdonato’s Braek (2022). He studied Finance at the Rutgers Business School.

Michael Spencer – Sound Designer
The son of a South Carolina mortician, Michael is a production & post sound mixer specializing in narrative and documentary filmmaking. He studied musical theater performance in Nashville, TN.  His “opera-man” persona garnered an online following of over 350,000 during the 2020 lockdown. His favorite mic is the Sennheiser MKH-8070.

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Contact

For inquiries, please contact fiscalsponsorship@filmindependent.org.