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Logline

A serious man tries to avoid catching a deadly laughing plague in a growingly polarized and dystopian society.

Synopsis

After an exotic bird arrives from Sardinia to an American port, a serious Polish-American man called Ryszard notices his work colleagues stricken with uncontrollable laughter – despite finding himself immune. With news arising that a contagion disrupting nerve signaling and causing fatal laughter is spreading around the globe, Ryszard tries his best to protect his unruly immigrant father and jovial wife, all the while trying to survive in an increasingly dystopian and glum society.
 

Meet the Filmmakers

Paul Kowalski – Writer/Director/Producer
Paul Kowalski is an award-winning writer-director whose films center around identity, exile and obsession, often featuring dark psychologies and the supernatural. His film Sardinia won Best Director at the Oscar- and BAFTA-qualifying 2024 Flickers Rhode Island International Film Festival. His 2021 debut feature Paper Tiger won the Audience Award and a Jury Prize at the Austin Film Festival, and was subsequently sold by Gersh and distributed onto Amazon. Born in the UK to Polish immigrants, Paul grew up in England, the Middle East, Poland, Africa, Southeast Asia and across America – sparking a natural impulse to reconcile contrasting views of the world. Studying literature and writing at Brown University, he published a collection of short stories and made his earliest films, then later received his MFA from the AFI Conservatory. Kowalski’s films have won recognition from the ASC, Beijing Film Academy and CINE, as well as the Canadian Cinematheque, Aesthetica, Indy Shorts, Flickers Rhode Island, Raindance, Austin and Beverly Hills film festivals, among others. Paul is also a two-time BAFTA Newcomer, frequent lecturer at USC’s School of Cinematic Arts – and named by Austin Film Festival and Writer’s Conference as one of “25 Screenwriters To Watch” in 2021. He is a Polish, British and US citizen, and lives in LA with his wife, actress Sorel Carradine, and their newborn son.

Pin-Chun Liu – Producer
Raised in Taiwan, Pin-Chun is an award-winning producer recently nominated for the Emerging Producer prize at the 2022 Film Independent Spirit Awards. Recent features include: Test Pattern, which won the Blackstar Lionsgate / Starz Producer Award, was distributed theatrically by Kino Lorber in 2021, and nominated for three Gotham Awards (including Best Picture) and four Independent Spirit Awards; and Paper Tiger, which won the Narrative Feature Audience Award and Jury mention at the 2020 Austin Film Festival, was sold by Gersh, and distributed by Gravitas Ventures. Pin-Chun earned her sociology degree from National Taiwan University, and MFA from the AFI Conservatory; her thesis, Way in Rye, was a Student Academy Award finalist. Other projects include Contrapelo (Tribeca, 2016 Academy Award Best Live Action Short shortlist), The Taiwan Oyster (SXSW), Making the Rules (Grindstone/Lionsgate), Wonderland (HBO), and Two Sentence Horror Stories (WB Digital, Tribeca, CW Seeds). She participated in the Sundance / Women in Film Financing & Strategy Intensive Program, and was one of six producers chosen for the 2022 Film Independent Producing Lab. She is most drawn to stories of small individuals caught in big systems; her passion remains collaborating with talented filmmakers and championing diverse, underrepresented voices.

Stephanie Furtun – Producer
Stephanie Furtun is a French-Turkish, first-generation American producer based between New York City and Los Angeles. Stephanie has worked in production and development for several acclaimed global entertainment companies, including CBS, Heyday Films, HLA London and VMI Worldwide at Cannes Film Festival, developing a robust knowledge of the industry. She is currently a Senior Producer at Martine Dubin Company, leading development for the streaming-platform, CORE. Her most recent film, On Our Way (starring Vanessa Redgrave, Jordana Brewster and Micheal Richardson) premiered at Tallinn Black Nights Film Festival (PÖFF) in 2021, and later screened at Ischia Global Film Festival in 2022. Stephanie received her B.A in Film & TV Production from USC’s School of Cinematic Arts.

Daniel Leighton – Producer
Daniel is a graduate of the American Film Institute’s prestigious Producing program, and previously studied Film Studies and English Literature at UC Davis. He is an award-winning creative producer of several feature and short films, digital content, music videos and commercials. His work has been shown on HBO, Amazon, Funny or Die, Short of the Week and played at numerous festivals around the globe. Daniel is also co-founder of Midnight Lantern Productions, which works with diverse and passionate storytellers who think of stories as entertainment, provocation, conversation and culture. He is based in Los Angeles, and loves animals, Angel City and his mother’s Taiwanese cooking.

Arlene Muller – Cinematographer
Arlene Muller was born and raised in New York City; she graduated from the Polish National Film School in Łódź, then later from AFI’s cinematography department. She has shot over 30 award-winning shorts and features including YOU’VE NEVER BEEN COMPLETELY HONEST (Sundance), TRAINING WHEELS (Sundance), MY TRIP TO SPAIN (Sundance), SOFT SOUNDS OF PEELING FRUIT (Tribeca), NASIR (BFI) and HELLO AHMA (Berlin, TIFF), THE HAPPY SAD (Frameline), and TV series like A24’s sketch show WOULD IT KILL YOU TO LAUGH? and THE FUTURE IS THEN (Tribeca). Her recent documentary MORE TtHAN THE RAINBOW, was praised by The Village Voice for its “expert cinematography that lingers on New York’s curved railings and blurring lights in a way that feels suffused with nostalgia, even for the present”. She is represented by Innovative Artists.

Kelly Fallon – Production Designer
Born and raised in Indiana, Kelly studied Art History & European Studies at the University of Notre Dame, then later at AFI’s prestigious Production Design program. She has designed several award-winning feature films including MISSING (Sundance), ALL ABOUT NINA (Tribeca), MFA (SXSW), as well the short AWAKEN, which won Best Production Design at the the LA Film Festival and LA Movie Awards. Kelly also designed several of the Academy’s Portrait Booth spots (the first of which received a CLIO Entertainment Award) and regularly works on commercials for clients ranging from Nike, Credit Sesame and Purple. She has also done set decoration for THE SEX LIVES OF COLLEGE GIRLS, MCMILLIONS (nominated for 5 Emmys) and music videos for Selena Gomez and John Mayer. Kelly is based in Los Angeles, where she is represented by Independent Artist Group (IAG).

Spencer Koobatian – Co-Editor
Spencer Koobatian is a film and TV editor, most recently working on Jonathan Nolan and Lisa Joy’s The Peripheral for Amazon and Kilter Films. His other work includes Ratched, The Orville, 9-1-1, Nightcap and How To Build Everything, and projects that screened at Sundance. Spencer is a graduate of Idyllwild Arts Academy, UC Santa Cruz, and AFI — where his thesis All These Voices won the 2016 Student Academy Award — and he was mentored by Donn Cambern (Easy Rider), Stan Salfas (Dawn of the Planet of the Apes) and Howard Smith (Point Break, The Abyss). Spencer’s other professional experience includes at creative agencies and companies such as Digital Kitchen, On the Reel Production, Dakota Pictures, Citizen Jones, Lives of Women, 60 Second Docs and Soulpancake.

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Contact

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