LOGLINE
Eli, an imaginative 10-year-old Jewish boy, must confront his fears of death and religion, when he's forced to attend a bizarre unveiling ceremony for his late-great-uncle.
SYNOPSIS
Eli, a 10-year-old Jewish boy with a hyperactive imagination, accompanies his older sister and mother to the unveiling ceremony for his late-great-uncle, who passed away from dementia. Traumatized by an unsettling memory of his great-uncle's illness, Eli's fear turns to panic when his relatives begin to act strangely during the ceremony.
ARTISTIC STATEMENT
"Unveiling" is a very personal project for me, based off of a memory from my childhood. Similar to Eli, when I was 10-years-old, I attended the unveiling ceremony for my late-great-uncle, who had passed away from dementia. Following an accident, my great-uncle was non-responsive for the rest of his life, and I have no real memories of him. His unveiling ceremony was one of the strangest experiences of my young life, and a memory that sticks with me to this day. At the time, my mother thought that it would make a good movie. 14 years later, I've decided to make it into one. Rather than recreate the event, I've adapted my memory into an absurdist comedy, about a young boy processing the strange confluence that occurs when first merging death with the strangeness of religious ceremony. The events are exaggerated and the characters vastly changed, but the core theme remains that of overcoming familial trauma through unlikely and radical means. A unique comedy-drama hybrid, "Unveiling" contains elements of horror, absurdist comedy and familial drama, all to create an entertaining, and ultimately moving, experience.
KEY CREW
Lukas Gordon - Director, Writer, Editor
Lukas Gordon is a 24-year-old Jewish-American filmmaker from Portland, Oregon, based in New York City. A graduate of Rhode Island School of Design (RISD), he is the recipient of the 2021-22 Tiffany Rosen Scholarship, and has worked on a multitude of prominent film & TV productions for HBO, Netflix, and Disney, as well as independent projects. In addition to his film work, he is also a staff contributor for Spectrum Culture, an independent media & arts publication. As a writer and director, Gordon's work focuses on communities, both broad and familial, navigating the subtleties of interpersonal communication. Through atmospheric explorations of environment and character, his films play freely with genre, ranging from drama to horror to absurdist comedy.
Daisy Borders - 1st Assistant Director
Daisy Borders attended the Rhode Island School of Design and graduated in 2018 with a degree in Film, Animation, and Video. She works for Running Woman as an in-house associate producer, development associate, and in-house post coordinator. Her work includes associate producing on Amy Schumer’s EXPECTING AMY on Max, post-supervising Sam Jay’s Netflix Special 3AM IN THE MORNING, and post- coordinating Showtime’s FLATBUSH MISDEMEANORS, ZIWE, ILANA GLAZER’s Comedy Central Special and ALAN CUMMING PRESENTS “A QUEER COMEDY EXTRAVAGANZA” Showtime Special. Daisy is also the writer/director of LITTLE MIGHTY, which she produced and edited in 2018 and was accepted into the Louisville Film Festival. Her feature, titled SLEEPWALKERS BAY, featured at the Beverly Hills Film Festival and the second round of AIFF. Daisy is a co-creator and writer of the novel, MARY, a queer fantasy trilogy and TV series selected for participation in The Gotham Episodic week in 2020.
Carissa Abitabilo - Line Producer
Carissa Abitabilo is a filmmaker and mixed media animator. Her work explores internal and external processes centering around love of family and a deep compassion for animals. She graduated with honors from RISD with a BFA in Film Animation and Video. She currently works at RISD in the Film Animation and Video department and is also a faculty member for RISD Continuing Education teaching classes in Animation. Abitabilo's most recent animated work was shown at Brown Observatory and RISD Continuing Education Faculty Show. She is also the film workshop coordinator for the Providence Children's Film Festival.
Lucas Borders - Director of Photography
Lucas (Luke) Borders, originally from Louisville, KY, is a 2023 graduate of the New York Film Academy (NYFA), where he earned an MFA in Cinematography. An accomplished DOP and Camera Operator, he has worked professionally in New York City on a variety of productions, ranging from music videos to commercial and narrative projects. Most recently, Borders completed work on writer/director Daisy Border’s upcoming HONEYBUDDY’S and the NYC-set web series, RAT CZAR.
ACCOLADES
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