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Why I Am an Anarchist
TYPE: Narrative Short
GENRE: Comedy
STATUS: Pre-Production
LOGLINE
16 year old Angela, an animal-rights extremist living in the Arizona desert, gets her worldview challenged when she befriends a homeless teenager.
SYNOPSIS
Angela is an animal rights extremist living in the wealthy suburbs of Arizona. When Angela ditches school after starting a fight, she runs into the desert behind her school where she meets Gabriel, an unhoused teenager. Gabriel has a lot to be mad about, but decidedly isn’t. Together the two go on a journey through the weirdo wilds of a pre-apocalyptic Sonoran Desert, with Angela’s worldview being challenged along the way in this satirical look at how our ideologies develop as young people.
ARTISTIC STATEMENT
“Why I Am an Anarchist” is the story of a wannabe-activist teenage girl who, in a desperate attempt to expose everyone else’s hypocrisy, loses sight of her own. Angela’s tragic flaw is that she takes herself too seriously, a trait I find ripe for comedy and return to repeatedly throughout my work.
My work has always centered around misfits, outsiders, and those on the fringes of society, but it’s only in the last few years that I’ve realized that my sensibility in telling their stories is more aligned with satirical and ironic comedies than drama. Feeling misunderstood is an isolating experience, but unique and bizarre observations and points-of-view are born from isolation. My work has followed a similar trajectory, as I’ve gotten older, I realize how funny some of these painful experiences actually are. I have two completed feature scripts, both of which are comedies and take place in my home state of Arizona, so “Why I Am an Anarchist” will be the beginning of an exploration of using that particular environment for comedic effect. The Arizona desert is a place of extremes: visually, ideologically, and environmentally. I’m excited to explore the dichotomy of Angela and Gabriel’s worlds on screen; of the desert wilds and the air-conditioned McMansions, and homelessness and wealth.
“Why I Am an Anarchist” is a movie about someone who claims that they want to change the world, but ultimately would rather that others see them as someone who wants to change the world, than actually do the work of trying to change it.
KEY CREW
Theo Gray - Cinematographer
Theo Gray is an NYC-based cinematographer. He graduated from the Maryland Institute College of Art in 2019 where he studied film and specialized in multimedia video installations. He is currently completing an MFA at NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts, where he's concentrating in cinematography and directing. Since he joined NYU, he has served as the cinematographer on numerous short films that have premiered at Palm Springs, Nashville Film Festival, and Moscow International Film Festival, and has received the 2024 Arri Volker Bahnemann Award for outstanding cinematography.
Sam Millstein - Producer
Sam Millstein is a NYC based producer with over 10 years of production experience. From music videos with A$AP Ferg and other Warner Music Artists, Docuseries with National Geographic and Netflix, to local independent Feature Films, Sam’s diverse production background has left him with invaluable experience and a unique skillset.
Anton Vicente-Kliot - Producer
Anton Vicente Kliot is a producer born and raised in New York City. Anton has worked across corporate events and film, with his works premiering at the Tribeca Film Festival, Sarajevo Film Festival, and Richmond Film Festival, among others. He is a current MBA/MFA candidate in the producing program at NYU, a joint venture between the Tisch School of the Arts and Stern School of Business.
Betsy Fippinger - Casting Director
Betsy Fippinger has trained under some of the best casting directors in New York, including Meredith Tucker, Ellen Lewis, Ellen Chenoweth, and Shayna Markowitz. As a casting associate and assistant, she worked on projects directed by Steven Spielberg, Martin Scorsese, Bo Burnham, Greg Mottola, and Lynn Shelton. She won an Artios Award for her work as the casting associate on the pilot episode of “The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel”. As a casting director, Betsy cast Sarah Friedland’s upcoming “Familiar Touch” (Venice ‘24), co-cast Nicholas Colia’s “Griffin in Summer” (winner of three awards at Tribeca ‘24, including Best Narrative Feature), and cast the lead youth roles for “Are You There, God? It’s Me Margaret,” for which she won her second Artios Award. She is currently casting upcoming projects for production companies Blueprint Pictures and Kindred Spirit. Before entering casting, Betsy worked at HBO and the William Morris Agency and graduated with a BFA in Film from Wesleyan University in 2003.
Charlotte Abbott - Production Designer
Charlotte Abbott is a New York City based production designer. After completing a BA in art history, she started her career in the fashion industry, sourcing textiles, props, and furniture for set designers. Abbott found that her attention to detail and appreciation of color and texture lent itself to creating worlds for film. Her narrative film credits include actor and director Dolly Wells’ feature film, Good Posture, which premiered at Tribeca Film Festival in 2019. She has also collaborated on narrative shorts that premiered at TIFF, BFI, and SXSW. Most recently, Abbott designed writer and director Pepi Ginsberg’s short film, The Pass, which was selected as part of Le Cinef at Festival de Cannes and is now a part of The Criterion Collection.
Sara Crow - Writer/Director/Producer
Sara Crow (she/her) is an Arizona-bred, Brooklyn-based writer/director whose stories center subcultures and misfits. She is a 2024 Sundance Screenwriting and Directing Lab Fellow and the recipient of the Sloan Sundance Fellowship. Her feature film Satoshi received the $100,000 Sloan Feature Film Prize at NYU’s Graduate Film Program, where she was awarded the Martin Scorsese Scholarship. Her debut narrative short film “Bluebird” won the Black Family Film Prize at NYU and “Best Short Film” at the Montana International Film Festival and the New Jersey Film Festivals. Her latest short film “HOWL” stars Zoe Ziegler (A24’s Janet Planet) and Alex Moffat (Saturday Night Live, The Bear). Her upcoming thesis film for New York University’s Graduate Film Program “Why I Am an Anarchist” is the recipient of the inaugural AnnaRose King Award for Comedic Storytelling. Her background in journalistic documentaries bleeds into her narrative work; Sara loves world-building and diving into secret and little known histories. www.sara-crow.com
Adam Kinyon - Producer
Adam Kinyon is a Producer and Unit Production Manager based in New York City. His projects range from independent feature films to multi-million dollar commercials across New York, California, Louisiana, Texas, Arizona, and Canada.
Adam’s recent work includes producing the indie features Floating Carousel and Muffled, as well as serving as New York Unit Line Producer and UPM for the Georgia feature Over the HIll. Prior to that, Adam line produced the Peacock pilot Night Trippin, produced commercials for Lexus, H&R Block, and Ross Simons, and served as Unit Production Manager for the $3M Nike x Travis Scott commercial directed by Robert Rodriguez (El Mariachi, Spy Kids), which aired during the 2024 Grammy’s.
He produced three independent features in 2024, and is slated for several more in 2025.
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