5 WEEKS IN SILVERTON

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TYPE: Documentary Short
GENRE: Documentary
STATUS: Post-Production

LOGLINE

What happens when a crew of trans filmmakers document the last 5 weeks of Stu Rasmussen’s life?

SYNOPSIS

The story of a trans teen at the beginning of her life and a trans elder at the end of theirs in smalltown Silverton, Oregon, and what happens when a crew of trans filmmakers show up for 5 weeks to ask big questions on gender, freedom, life, and death.

ARTISTIC STATEMENT

5 WEEKS IN SILVERTON is being directed by both L Morgan Lee and Andrew Russell. Andrew Russell is editing. More on these two: Tony Award® nominee L Morgan Lee is an American actress, director and writer. She made history as the first openly transgender actor to receive a Tony Award® nomination for her standout work in A Strange Loop. That performance also garnered her an Antonyo Award for Best Featured Performance and a Drama League Distinguished Performance Award nomination. Andrew Russell is a theatre and film director with a focus on real humans who have made a change in the world in which they live. This includes a musical about whistleblowers, a musical based on the life of Big Freedia, and THE DRAGON CYCLE, a trilogy of plays about a Filipino family full of music, wild stories, and adventure. In addition to the above, everyone on our crew in Silverton was either queer, trans, or both. This includes Director of Photography Sarah Whelden: Sarah’s award winning narrative portfolio spans six feature films and numerous short films that have premiered at prestigious festivals worldwide. Her film Tight is set to premiere at SXSW in March of ’24. Her most recent nomination was for the Jury Prize for Best Cinematography (2023) at the Dark Red Film Festival for Bury Your Fish. In the fall of ’23 she was invited to be a guest panelist and screen her short-form work, a collaboration with Fujifilm, at the renowned ASC Clubhouse. Sarah was selected for the prestigious ASC Vision Mentorship in ’21, working under the tutelage of Polly Morgan, ASC, BSC. In ’23 she was among eight DP’s chosen for Netflix & WIF’s inaugural Cinematography Fellowship, which provides guidance from cinematographers Alison Kelly and Sandra Valde-Hansen, ASC. She calls Los Angeles home and is on the roster at Neer Motion. She is also a proud member of the International Cinematographer’s Guild, Local 600. And sound mixer Kai Tillman: Kai Tillman is a trans non-binary filmmaker and activist whose working class background and years of living on the fringe, has inspired their passion and dedication to grassroots filmmaking. This knowledge and experience has led them additionally into mentoring and training houseless and marginalized youth. They were selected for two workshops in Cuba hosted by Abbas Kiarostami in 2016 and Werner Herzog in 2017. Their short films have been screened in over 30 film festivals internationally including, Locarno Film Festival, Outfest LA, Frameline, and Musée D'art Moderne de Montréal. We share this to make clear that we believe stories need to be told by those that are represented in the film.

KEY CREW

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