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Logline

An anxious woman meets two men – one a scientist, one not – who work to ease her mind by supplying a hug from their homemade robot.

Synopsis

In what could only be the anxiety-drenched times we are living in right now a woman is on the brink of a nervous breakdown. In the parking lot of a Los Angeles motel, her teletherapy session is not going well. But she’s parked herself, maybe for the first time in a while, in just the right spot. A friend has told her about two men, and the experience they provide in a 30-minute session that has changed this friend’s life. The business these men operate is called Hold You So Tight, and it provides a hug that is calibrated to each customer’s specific needs. The embrace is delivered by a homemade robot, with which the men travel the countryside, like a couple of Johnny Snuggleseeds. By the time our heroine reaches the door to Room 11, she is near the end of her very frayed rope. What happens next is perhaps what years of technology have been leading us to this whole damned time.
 

Meet the Filmmakers

Eric Rudnick – Director/Producer/Actor
After studying acting at The Neighborhood Playhouse and Playwrights Horizons in New York, Eric began writing and producing in Los Angeles. His plays include Day Trader and Chameleon in Aspic. His TV projects include Circus/Maximus, a half-hour comedy optioned by FOX, and Incoming, an hour-long drama which sold to TNT. He has been a producer of scripted and unscripted TV and film for 20 years. Hold You So Tight will be the second short he has directed. #ManyHats

Davey Robertson – Cinematographer
Originally from Toronto, Canada, and Buffalo, NY, Davey Robertson has been burning up the big and small screen in the Los Angeles film industry for over 20 years. He is an award-winning writer/director and a prolific cinematographer who has tallied dozens of international awards, including the Golden Eagle from Cannes in 2012. He has over 150 hours of episodic television, multiple feature films, and dozens of national commercials to his credit. An artist from a young age, Davey caught the filmmaking bug in high school, strongly influenced by the works of David Lynch, The Coen Brothers, and Lasse Halstrom. His passion for the poetic has led him throughout his career to seek out the strange, artistic, and unconventional.

Rebecca Scott – Art Director
Known for such film and TV projects as Bone Tomahawk, The White Rose, and Murder Among Friends, Rebecca is known for her work on sets in a variety of roles. She is also a writer/director, most recently helming her award-winning short film, Together Forever.

Ryan Graff – Production Sound Mixer
Starting out as an actor in 1998 in community theater, Ryan found his love for performance and storytelling. After several years with the Ojai Shakespeare Festival, Ryan began seeking film and TV work in nearby Los Angeles, a short drive from his hometown of Ventura, California. He later attended the Los Angeles Film School to study directing. Ryan began working in production sound shortly after film school. He is best known for his work on “9-1-1” on Fox, and the Netflix Original feature film XOXO.

Kareem Ferguson – Actor
An acclaimed actor, Kareem is also an award-winning writer/director. He was most recently the host of Neighborhood TV Georgia, a daily political online news channel. He produced and starred in the horror feature Tethered. Other roles include Clarence in the HBO series Winning Time and Lemar in the Netflix/Ryan Murphy series Monster: The Jeffrey Dahmer Story. Kareem wrote, directed, and produced the short film Gay Baby which won the “Best LGBT Comedy Short” at the Golden State Film Festival, “Best Original Screenplay” at the Silicon Beach Film Festival, and multiple audience awards. In 2020 Kareem was one of 10 director-hyphenates selected in the inaugural “Find Your People Party”, an incubator launched by actress Issa Rae and Color Creative TV to help BIPOC artists take their stories off the page and onto the screens.

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Contact

For inquiries, please contact fiscalsponsorship@filmindependent.org.