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Logline

A self-conscious high school senior navigates first love and the uncertainty of her athletic ambitions all while trying to make it to graduation.

Synopsis

Endurance follows 17-year-old Emma, a high school track athlete, who is uncertain about almost everything except for a future as a long-distance runner. With a knee injury slowing her down and bad report cards stacking up, Emma’s college ambitions are looking further away by the day. This causes a strain on her relationship with her father, who struggles to relate to his only daughter after his wife’s passing. When Emma’s father and coach advise her to look for an alternative career path, she does what every rational teenager would do: not listen.
Enter Alex, another high school senior who acts like he has everything figured out. More mature than the other boys, Alex has a job and what seems like an unshakeable confidence.

Emma continues to struggle at school and on the track while her best friends breeze through their senior year without breaking a sweat. The pressure to perform gets the better of her and she overstrains herself, injuring her knee further. Coach Kelly benches Emma, leaving all the time in the world for her and Alex to grow closer. They become inseparable, and Alex’s influence helps open Emma up emotionally and pushes her beyond her comfort zone.

Below the surface, Alex’s family life is tumultuous. His mother is an alcoholic, and he is the main provider to his family of four brothers. Emma’s body continues to fail her as she pushes herself to perform at meets she can’t seem to win. Struggling to find a breakthrough, she decides to give up her track dreams.

On a night out with Alex’s delinquent crowd, they find themselves entangled with the cops. Emma and Alex run away, but they get into a fight when he struggles to keep up with her. The cracks in their relationship start to become more apparent.
 

Meet the Filmmakers

Jackie Mahoney – Writer/Director
Jackie is a writer-director from Phoenix, Arizona who after spending much of her life in the Southwest, acquired a thirst for characters and people with different lived experiences than her own through film and television. A graduate of the London Film School’s screenwriting program, Jackie has always been drawn to international cinema and spent much of her time pouring over films from auteurs like Wong Kar Wei, Jane Campion, and Yorgos Lanthimos. After film school, Jackie began working with Chilean filmmaker and screenwriter Gonzalo Maza (Gloria, Una Mujer Fantástica) on English language screenplays about whimsical women in their 20s finding themselves. However, much like her idols, Jackie was drawn back to the idea of home, which is how she found herself in America, thinking about the Southwest, the place where it all began.

Over the past several years, Jackie has written for the popular YouTube channel How To Beat, is part of Nicholas Weinstock’s Craft Services program, and has made three short films (Tough Guy, Happy Birthday, and Half A Century) which have screened at festivals such as NBFF, Cinequest, HollyShorts Film Festival, and Flickers’ Rhode Island International Film Festival. She’s currently wrapping a short with fellow London Film School grad and co-producer Ulla Prida (Carajita) and is in pre-production on another with collaborator and Director of Photography, Derek Mindler (Angola Do You Hear Us?).

Annie Huang – Producer
Annie Huang is a first-generation Asian American who grew up in Vietnam, Taiwan, and Hong Kong before immigrating to the States at age 11, where she started learning English as her 4th language with the help of American subtitled films. She has over 7 years of experience working in creative development, film production, and marketing strategy at Warner Bros. Studios, Universal Pictures, Searchlight Pictures, CBS Studios, and Sony Pictures. Annie is a producer on a slate of indie projects with creatives from across the globe, with the goal of leveraging her studio knowledge and relationships to help rising filmmakers break into the studio realm.

Annie is a member of the inaugural class of the Academy of Motion Pictures GOLD program, a Forbes 30 Under 30 Scholar, a Women In Film Independent Producing Fellow, a Soho House x Creative Futures Fellow, and an APIA NBCUniversal Award recipient. Her work can be found at Annie-huang.com.

Paulina Jaskiewicz – Producer
Paulina is a Polish-born filmmaker, who relocated to the United States at the age of 19 to pursue her creative passion influenced by American movies. Her cinematic journey started during an exchange program, sparking a storytelling passion through film courses at the University of Hawaii. Paulina made her directorial and producing debut in 2021 with the award-winning short documentary Wide Open Dreams recognized at Oscar and BAFTA qualifying festivals. She is a member of The Academy of Motion Pictures Gold Program and the Lake Placid Film Festival Fellowship. Paulina worked for major studios including Paramount Pictures, Warner Bros. Studios, Universal Pictures, and Lionsgate as a production assistant gaining on-set experience. Beyond film, she’s a three-time Polish Handball Champion and a former player in the Junior National Team of Poland. Her work can be found at Wideopendreamsfilm.com

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Contact

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