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Heart of Lumber
TYPE: Narrative Short
GENRE: Comedy
STATUS: Pre-Production
LOGLINE
Raised by a cult of talking antique furniture, Sadie’s life changes the day she makes her first friend.
SYNOPSIS
Raised by a cult of talking antique furniture, Sadie’s life changes the day she makes her first friend. Gothic, slapstick, claustrophobic, and visceral, "Heart of Lumber" is a dark comedy that rips the hinges off a standard narrative around power and family dynamics.
ARTISTIC STATEMENT
In a crash of hilarity and horror, Heart of Lumber explores what happens when unyielding expectations meets exciting new possibilities. A young woman raised to cater to her family dares to look beyond the tiny confines of her world, and is shaken. It’s a tale as old as time—except with talking furniture. It urges us to ask how far we would go to be true to ourselves, and at what cost? After all, what doesn’t bend, breaks.
KEY CREW
Cohlie Brocato - Director
Cohlie is a director, writer, puppeteer, and occasional author of his own bios. His art focuses on the intersection of hilarity and horror, and the general terror of being alive. Most of his waking hours are committed to Ticking Clock, a creative production house based in NYC that he co-founded more than a decade ago. As chief creative director of the company, he enjoys finding ways to make familiar brands feel new again, and to ground concepts in good storytelling. He has directed commercials and campaigns for Tito’s Vodka, Master Card, Sennheiser, Benjamin Moore, L’Oreal, Patron, and New York Comic Con, amongst a host of other entities. He revels in bringing wild ideas to life, and finding honest moments amongst strange concepts.
M.J. Geier - Producer
M.J. is a film and digital media producer who has overseen more than 400 commercial and branded content projects, including all-inclusive campaigns for Master Card, Benjamin Moore, Tito’s Vodka, Burger King, Southwest Airlines, Panera Bread, Northwell Health, Sennheiser, Red Bull, Patron, and many more. President and co-founder of Ticking Clock, a creative production house based in New York City, M.J. views time as a precious resource and invests herself in projects worth taking past the finish line. Her approach to producing is equal parts practical and passionate; she loves to make great work, and with careful balance of the artistic and logistic, she delivers her projects on vision, on budget, on message, and on time.
Mars Garcia - Director of Photography
Mars Garcia is a Mexican-born cinematographer with a photojournalistic and fine art still photography background. She has exhibited work at The Queens Museum of New York and galleries throughout NYC. Mars has lensed numerous narrative pieces such as ‘The Chrononaut’ starring Khalil Kain (Juice). She also creates commercial work and recently finished filming a campaign for Captain Morgan showcasing Tone Bell (NBC's Whitney). Mars has an extensive lighting background. She is a proud member of the electric department of IATSE Local 52 and has gaffed feature films such as Adrien Brody’s Clean (Tribeca Film Festival). She has been mentored by Scott Ramsey (gaffer, The Sixth Sense) and by James McFadyen (gaffer, Severance). Currently, she is being mentored by Sandra Vladen-Hansen, ASC, LPS (White Bird in a Blizzard, Plan B). She is also one of the recipients of AFI's Cinematography Intensive for Women, 2023. Mars wants to tell stories about the oppressed breaking free from oppression, narratives of people of color and women, and art that explores identity.
Rowan Magee - Puppet Design & Performance
Rowan Magee is a puppeteer, designer, and educator from Troy, NY. He has performed in international festivals, on TV and film, in stadiums and churches. Rowan has puppeteered on international tours with Phantom Limb Company, Robin Frohardt, Nick Lehane, and Dan Hurlin, and in New York for Chris Green, Spencer Lott, Josh Rice, Emma Wiseman, and Sachiyo Takahashi. In 2018, Rowan performed in the National Theater’s Tony Award-winning Broadway revival of Angels in America, and in 2023, he puppeteered as the head of Richard Parker the tiger in the Tony Award-winning Life of Pi. In 2019, Rowan operated the titular reference puppet for the film Clifford the Big Red Dog. Rowan has designed and built puppets and props for MCC Theater, Bard Summerscape, TLincoln Center Education, rusty Sidekick, The Dalton School, St Mark's School, Sachiyo Takahashi and Maiko Kikuchi. He has taught theater and puppetry through Story Pirates, Friends Seminary, The Dalton School, Adam State College in Colorado, Manhattan Youth, Marquis Studios and CO/LAB Theater Group. Rowan has been the co-founder and curator of the Object Movement Festival since 2017, a winter residency and spring showcase of experimental puppet artists in NYC.
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