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I Am A Gentleman Short Film
TYPE: Narrative Short
GENRE: Drama
STATUS: Pre-Production
LOGLINE
In a society that rationalizes violence against women, teenage Max faces the harsh reality and consequences of his new hormonal compulsions when he has his first crush on a girl after taking the school's mandatory sexuality test.
SYNOPSIS
Are men biologically programmed for violence, or does our society condition them that way? That is what writer/director Nicky Rudolph Calloway curiously explores through dark humor, and devastating drama. This fifteen minute short film tackles the damaging effects of toxic masculinity and misogyny.
ARTISTIC STATEMENT
I wrote this film around the time I came out... I was thinking a lot about masculinity and manhood. I was just purging. I see it now as a satirical criticism and comedy relief to what I see every day when I look at my phone and see the weird alpha-incel stuff guys I grew up with post on social media. It's strange to live in a society that frowns upon violence, but doesn't lift a finger to fix it. That's the world that Max (the main character) is living in. All the grown-ups tell him he'll want to hurt and kill girls, and that it's bad. But they also have a special kind of insurance you can buy to legally protect yourself if you assault someone. They're complicit. I Am A Gentleman was written in 2020, and would go on to win Best Short Script at the 2021 Slamdance Screenplay Competition and the 2021 Nashville Film Festival Screenwriting Competition. After five years, I Am A Gentleman remains the #2 short script on Coverfly.
KEY CREW
Nicky Rudolph Calloway - Writer/Director
Nicky is a queer screenwriter and director with a background in visual art and animation. His first short film "We The Lonely," was screened in the collegiate showcase at the 2019 Newport Beach Film Festival. Nicky has won numerous awards for screenwriting, including Best Feature Screenplay in the 2023 Nashville Film Festival Screenwriting Competition for "The Many Deaths of Wallace Badger" and Best Short Screenplay in the 2021 Slamdance Screenwriting Competition for "I Am A Gentleman".
Candice (Dice) Rose - Director of Photography
Dice began studying photography when she was 14 in a darkroom lab in the Colorado Rockies. She is a queer Cinematographer who received her MFA in Film from UCLA. Dice is a sexual assault survivor and outspoken activist for womens' rights. Her work has often focused around the experiences of marginalized women and seeks to bring social justice and change. She has received several awards for filmmaking such as the Hollywood Foreign Press Association Award, the MPAA award and the Jack Nicholson Distinguished Student Director Award. Dice was nominated for a student Emmy in 2017 for series SANITY.
Donnie Mathias - Editor
Donnie is a film editor born and raised in Orange County, CA. Since being nominated for an editing award directly out of college, he has gone on to edit and do VFX work on shorts and feature films. He has a passion for preservation and physical media; while not editing he writes fiction and photographs on film, developing it in his home darkroom. Donnie is also the editor for the Proof of Concept for I Am A Gentleman.
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