Film Independent’s Fiscal Sponsorship program opens the door to nonprofit funding for independent filmmakers and media artists.
 

Logline

A man in search of a local lake monster finds the real answer he has been looking for.

Synopsis

On a dark, placid lake, Fred Fort (30s) pushes a small dinghy into the water and rows the boat deep into the lake. With the help of a hydrophone, Fred hears something in the depths of the lake producing echolocation.

At his small lake house, Fred marks the location where he recorded the echolocation on a map. He’s hunting for Maggie, the local lake monster of Lake Margaret.

Having spent his life by the lake and talking to locals about their own sightings, Fred continues to gather evidence of Maggie’s existence. He has learned everything he could since he was a child from his mother, who took the most famous photo of Maggie. What can Fred do when he learns of a terrible secret about the creature?
 

Meet the Filmmakers

Bruno Mattos Rubeiz – Director
Bruno Mattos Rubeiz is a New York-based writer/director. Originally from Brazil, Bruno got his BFA in Film at Emerson College in Boston. His undergraduate thesis film A New Friend, a dramedy about two friends that begin to drift apart after one of them changes into a vampire, got him accepted into the MFA Film program at Columbia University. Bruno’s work is focused on exploring what happens when the human meets the boundaries between realistic and fantastic. He is currently gearing up to shoot his thesis film at Columbia, The Ballad of Fred Fort, while also developing his first feature, Old Boys.

Samantha Lori Glass – Producer
Samantha Lori Glass is a third-year MFA Film Creative Producing Student at Columbia University. Samantha grew up outside of Philadelphia, PA, where she worked in acting, modeling, and film. She studied at Arcadia University and graduated Summa Cum Laude. Interning at Fox 29 Philadelphia, Samantha took the fast-paced life of news and adapted those experiences to her film sets. While at Columbia University, she worked as producer, director, casting director, and assistant director on multiple short films. She was a marketing intern for Ira Deutchman’s documentary Searching for Mr. Rugoff. She currently interns for Cinegryphon Entertainment. After school, Samantha would like to work in development.

Angeline Joelle Dimambro – Co-Producer
Angeline Joelle Dimambro is a full-on Midwestern gal. Originally from Michigan, she is a screenwriter studying in New York City at Columbia University’s Film MFA program where she is a Hobson/Lucas Fellow. She holds a BA in English Literature and Creative Writing from the University of Michigan, where she graduated with highest honors and was awarded the Emerging Writers Award for her thesis—a collection of quasi-comic short stories entitled, Welcome Home. Her current projects range from mockumentary comedy and horror to nunsploitation and (anti)coming-of-age drama. Her original mockumentary pilot, Mortuary Academy, was a winner of the spring 2021 Sloan Foundation Screenplay Treatment Competition at Columbia University. She is the producer of numerous student short films, most recently Chinese Mafia by Xiaolong Wang. She is most interested in telling stories that center the poetic, ugly mess that is being awake in this world.

Kristin Kohlmeyer – Co-Producer
Kristin Kohlmeyer is a producer + writer/director based in New York City. She recently completed Columbia University’s Film Producing MFA program where she produced and collaborated on several films including a short film by Bruno Rubeiz. Many of her projects have gone on to garner festival acclaim. Recently, she has been working as an associate producer for Part 2 Pictures and Talos Films on two upcoming docu-series. Before that, she worked on a documentary in development for HBO and for Meet Cute Podcast. She got her start in documentary film as an archive researcher and production assistant on HBO’s Agents of Chaos. Before her time at Columbia University, she started a successful, independent video company called Kohlmeyer Media where she produced and created wedding films, short documentaries and brand content. Her goals in filmmaking are to engage social consciousness, impact communities, ignite passion and create change in the world at large. She plans to pursue this path as she further develops her career.

Cailin Yatsko – Cinematographer
Cailin Yatsko, originally from Arkansas, is a New York City-based narrative and documentary cinematographer. Her commercial cinematography includes award-winning branded and editorial content for many clients including Google, Planned Parenthood, Dior, The New Yorker, and Pfizer. Along with short films, music videos, and episodic web series, Cailin has shot two narrative features with director Ani Simon-Kennedy: DAYS OF GRAY (2013) and THE SHORT HISTORY OF THE LONG ROAD (2019 Tribeca Film Festival), for which Variety noted: “Cailin Yatsko’s tranquil cinematography majestically captures the vast, sun-baked New Mexico vistas. But that palpable weightlessness doesn’t come at the expense of respect and realism.” She also lensed director Cynthia Lowen’s feature documentary NETIZENS (2018 Tribeca Film Festival). Cailin is a member of CinematographersXX, ICFC, ARRAY Crew, and Free The Work. She is represented by Alexander Creatives.

Contact

For inquiries, please contact fiscalsponsorship@filmindependent.org.