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Logline

Upon receiving a disturbing email from her son, a mother drives frantically to his school hoping to avert the unimaginable.

Synopsis

After receiving a disturbing email from her son that leads her to believe something horrible is about to happen, Julie weaves wildly through morning traffic in a race against time to reach him. Between narrowly avoiding collisions and getting stuck in heavy traffic, she makes a series of phone-calls in a bid to piece together what is happening. After being put on hold by the police department, invalidated by her ex-husband and gaslit by her son’s therapist, Julie hears a news report citing a gunman in a blue BMW has opened fire on the campus of a university. Recognizing her son’s car, Julie’s horror solidifies as she makes a last attempt to reach him before it’s too late.

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Meet the Filmmakers

Maia Scalia – Director/Writer

MAIA SCALIA is an actress and writer based in New York City. She received her B.F.A. in Drama from NYU Tisch School of the Arts and went on to continue her training at William Esper Studio after graduating. Upon graduating, she made her debut as the lead in an Off- Broadway play and since then she has starred in multiple short films and has a supporting roles in the up and coming Sony Marvel movie MORBIUS (2022), in Phyllis Nagy’s directorial debut CALL JANE (2022) starring Elizabeth Banks and Sigourney Weaver as well as THREE WOMEN (2022) on Showtime . Most recently she wrote three episodes for Sam Raimi’s Quibi series FIFTY STATES OF FRIGHT titled “Knoxville Girl” inspired by the murder ballad and her family’s Appalachian roots. MOTHER will be her directorial debut .

Ani Schroeter – Producer

ANI SCHROETER is a New York based filmmaker. She has produced countless short films, music videos and campaigns as well as 1st Assistant Directed the film GIANTS BEING LONELY which was nominated for the Orizzonti Competition (Horizons) at the 2019 Venice Biennale. Ani co-produced the short film WIGGLE ROOM, directed by Sam Guest and Julia Baylis which premiered at Sundance 2021. She recently wrapped her directorial debut,YIELD, starring Christine Spang and Lili Taylor.

Pietro Scalia – Editor

PIETRO SCALIA is an Italian–American film editor. Born in Sicily, Scalia lived in Switzerland before moving to Los Angeles to attend UCLA, where he received an MFA in Film. After serving as an assistant and an additional editor on several Oliver Stone films in the late ‘80s-early ‘90s, he was promoted to editor and immediately won the Academy Award for Best Editing in 1991 for Stone’s landmark film JFK. Scalia received his second Oscar nomination for Gus Van Sant’s GOOD WILL HUNTING in 1997, the same year he began his 20-year collaboration with Ridley Scott on G.I. JANE. Among the thirteen films the director-editor team created were GLADIATOR (2000), which earned Scalia his third nomination, and BLACK HAWK DOWN (2001),for which he won his second Best Editing Oscar.

Matt Clegg – Director of Photography

MATT CLEGG born by the river and raised in Richmond, Virginia. His first feature film as cinematographer, ARE WE NOT CATS, premiered at the Venice Film Festival. His other work includes SAVE YOURSELVES! which premiered at Sundance (2020) and SOCKS ON FIRE which won best documentary at Tribeca Film Festival (2020). He has worked on various other shorts and features that have been screened around the world as well as countless commercials and music videos.

Eli Keszler – Composer

New York based artist, composer and percussionist. Keszler’s music, installations, and visual work have appeared at the Whitney Museum, Lincoln Center, MIT List Center, 67 Ludlow, Victoria & Albert Museum, Sculpture Center, The Kitchen, South London Gallery, Hessel Museum, Harvard’s Carpenter Center for the Visual Arts, Luma-Foundation, Barbican-St. Lukes, Walker Art Center, LAX Art, and MoMA PS1. He has released solo records for Shelter Press, Empty Editions, ESP-DISK’, PAN and REL Records. Keszler wrote the original score to Dasha Nekrasova’s feature THE SCARY OF SIXTY FIRST, which won GWFF Best First Feature Award at the Berlin Film Festival. His other film work includes contributions to Daniel Lopatin’s score for the Safdie Brother’s acclaimed, UNCUT GEMS. As a composer, Keszler’s commissions include: the Icelandic Symphony Orchestra, ICE Ensemble, Brooklyn String Orchestra and So Percussion. He has collaborated with Oneohtrix Point Never, Skrillex, Laurel Halo, Kevin Beasley, Rashad Becker, Laure Prouvost, and David Grubbs among others

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Contact

For inquiries, please contact fiscalsponsorship@filmindependent.org.