fiscal sponsorship
The Lore of Alice
TYPE: Fiction
GENRE: Horror
STATUS: Development
LOGLINE
Babysitter. Storyteller. Witch. Your children are not safe.
SYNOPSIS
Jahna and Frank hire a sitter last minute to look after their children, and as luck would have it a very charming, young woman by the name of Alice is recommended. While Rachel, Josh, and the newborn Denise are left in her care, Alice entertains them with games, extra cheesy mac n cheese, and bestows her favorite activity of the night: Reading a bedtime story. But as the evening unfolds Jahna and Frank soon realize that this sitter is not who she claimed to be: Alice is an evil witch that can summon the monsters from her terrifying book of lore.
As Jahna and Frank rush home to save their kids, Rachel and Josh must use their wits and not fall prey to Alice.
ARTISTIC STATEMENT
Given the success of my award-winning short film, Black People Are Dangerous, my goal was to entertain an audience with a horror film while encouraging them to think about race. This is the beauty of the horror genre as it allows filmmakers to take risks, or explore social issues as we have seen in films like Rosemary's Baby, The Stepford Wives, and more recently in Get Out. I will continue that mission with The Lore of Alice with this proof of concept short, in the full length the heroine is going to be modeled after my grandmother who was the first to immigrate to the U.S. followed by my mother, and aunts. I never get to see women like them be the hero on screen so that will be a prominent feature in The Lore of Alice.
The best way to describe the tone and feel of the film is Stranger Things meets The Conjuring meets classic films like Halloween. Amid the picturesque backdrop of modern day suburbia is a witch, Alice, terrorizing families from town to town by abducting children, and feeding their souls to Satan. With that in mind the film also bares metaphorical relevance to the horrors of family separation.
Having completed a successful run with Black People Are Dangerous, the awards, and film festival screenings put me in contact with some industry people in Hollywood. And what that means is once The Lore of Alice is completed we have access to well established studios, and with one of the producers being my best friend from film school who recently worked with Oprah, this film is definitely getting into the right hands.
From a business sense it's helpful to see why investors and studios love horror films. Below is a list of similar films of the same nature and what they generated at the box office. The numbers don’t lie:
Paranormal Activity:
Budget: 15K
Box Office: $193 million
Get Out:
Budget: $4 million
Box Office: $255 million
Halloween:
Budget: $10 million
Box Office: $253 million
Horror films are made for a reason, but when you get to make one that takes a step further to address real life concerns, The Lore of Alice suddenly becomes more than just your run of the mill horror film.
Our current financial goal is to raise 30K which covers: production, cast and crew, film festival submissions, insurance, and that one named actor set to come on board.
Using the micro-budget approach like the films of Blumhouse and Monkeypaw Production, I am confident The Lore of Alice will bring a fresh new take to this witchy tale and attract a lot of the major players passionate about making an entertaining horror film with a diverse perspective.
KEY CREW
Donaldo Prescod - Writer/Director
Donaldo Prescod is an award-winning filmmaker from Boston, Mass. After receiving his BA in Cinema at SFSU he moved to New York to earn an MA in Acting at The New School for Drama. As an actor Donaldo has appeared in: Angels in America, Lend Me a Tenor, The New York premiere of The Recommendation (Craig Noel Award, Best New Play, 2014 Ovation Best Play) by Jonathan Caren, The Wundelsteipen by Nick Jones, True Bible Tales by Rob Askins, Patrick’s Story and The End: When God Gave Up by Golden Globe winner Kyle Bradstreet, Richard III, Burn This, and Dylan directed by Liz Carlson, and The Feast by Cory Finley, directed by Courtney Ulrich. As a writer Donaldo has written numerous plays for the late night episodic #serials@theflea including The 1’s and 2’s, now a full length which had its NY premiere at The Tank, and 2014 semifinalist for the Eugene O’Neill center’s National Playwright Conference. His film Black People Are Dangerous won Best Narrative Short at the Urban Film Festival and the Honorable Mention Award at the 10th Annual Bushwick Film Festival.
Rebecca Hamm - Producer
Rebecca Hamm is an award-winning producer who creates content across an array of entertainment platforms. In 2018, Rebecca received an Emmy nomination, Parents Choice Award, and Communicator Award for her producing/directing work on Storyline Online, a program that promotes global literacy. In 2017, Rebecca won a Cilo for her documentary, Beauty Re-defined, which explored the falsification of beauty in advertising. In 2016, she produced and sold the dark Christmas comedy feature film, Uncle Nick, starring Brian Posen and Paget Brewster. Rebecca has produced branded content for clients such as AT&T, Radio Flyer, TLC, HBO, Mary Kay and a host of fashion brands. Rebecca is focused on creating compelling content that supports women, children and under-served communities. Her father is double-amputee who earned a purple heart for his services in Vietnam.
Claire Siebers - Lead
Claire Siebers (ALICE): THEATER: Favorite credits include Agnes (Lesser America), The Workshop (by Torrey Townsend, directed by Knud Adams, with Austin Pendleton), Tribes at Actors Theater of Louisville (directed by Evan Cabnet), Time Is The Mercy of Eternity (by Deb Margolin, with Lisa Kron), Storm Still (Brooklyn Yard), LA Party (Collapsible Hole, Public Theater Under the Radar, Fusebox Festival in Austin, TX), Pocatello aka When You’re Here (Sam Hunter) at Williamstown Theatre Festival, and Hedda Gabler. She has a web series called Power Lunch. FILM: Other People, Ogre, Genius in a Small Town. Education: Yale University, The Juilliard School.
Jessica S. Hinds - Co-producer
Jessica S Hinds is an award winning writer, producer, and the creator of Meditative Writing © .
As a teacher Jessica has mentored thousands of writers including Sundance Award-winning filmmakers, Emmy Award-winning writers & producers, Tony Award winners, best-selling authors, professional musicians, TV showrunners, reality TV stars, published poets, and emerging artists in the fields of screenwriting, playwriting, novel writing, TV writing, memoir writing, poetry, journalism, and music.
Jessica is the co-host of the radio show Truth To Power. She has been a guest teacher & speaker at The Breakk with Karen Kirkland, The NYC Women Filmmakers, Stage32 house @ Sundance, The New School for Drama, The Writers Digest Conference, ITV Fest, The English Writers of Buenos Aires Collective, The Curious About Screenwriting Podcast, and a dozen other schools, festivals, and conferences around the world from California to Indonesia. Upcoming speaking engagements include The Napa Valley Film Festival, the Mystic Film Festival, and the Austin Film Festival.
Jessica is currently finishing her book THE MEDITATIVE WRITING COMPANION. Current artistic projects include THE CIRCUIT (Stage play), THE PERSISTENCE OF MEMORY (feature), SLUTTY RAINBOW BRITE (digital short series) and THE GREAT ONE.
MeditativeWriting.org
Joseph Willwerth - Producer
Joseph Vassily Willwerth is the director of programming at Bushwick Film Festival and a shorts programmer at the Festival of Cinema NYC, both of which have been ranked in the Top 100 Film Festivals on Film Freeway. He is currently producing two short films, each directed by Bushwick Film Festival alumni. Joseph is also developing an alternative horror screenplay based on Jeffrey Dahmer's Instagram account.
Connect With The Filmmakers:
$2,000
$30,000
It's tax deductible!
ACCOLADES
Help promote my fundraising campaign
Put our donation widget on your website
The Gotham Film & Media Institute is a not-for-profit organization dedicated to finding, developing and celebrating the people and projects that shape the future of story.