What is Eden?

Eden is a queer love short film that we are making as our Western Carolina University senior thesis. Our hope is to craft a story that blends our love and care for the queer community with our own personal filmmaking interests in comedic storytelling, to create a quality sapphic romcom that we can take pride in and hold up as the peak of our college work.

Synopsis

Eden is struggling with a problem. You see, she just can't seem to find her perfect husband. So, she does the only logical thing and asks God to hurry things up for her. And, as if by divine intervention, she meets the perfect guy. On paper, at least. To Eden, something still feels off about him, and she has a frightening suspicion that someone else might be just perfect for her.

This light-hearted romcom focuses on Eden navigating her desire for love and her relationship with God as she realizes that the person she has come to love is, in fact, another woman.

Who Are We?

We are all students at Western Carolina University in the Film and Television Production program, and as seniors in this program, it falls to us to produce an example of our work as filmmakers that exemplifies all that we have learned over the course of the past three years, a senior thesis project, and Eden is ours. We all had a desire to work with one another, and due to our ties to the LGBT+ community and love of comedies, we found that a queer romcom was a project that we all had an interest in creating.

Meet the Crew

For this project, we have assembled a strong team of students who have a great passion for this project and have experience in these roles that has been cultivated over the past three years.

Writer

Megan Comer

Megan Comer is a Western Carolina University senior who is eager to share Eden with both her peers and the short-film community. As an aspiring screenwriter, the process of writing Eden has allowed Megan to explore the genre of romantic comedy in a way she has not done before, and she hopes those who see this film will find as much joy in watching it as she has had throughout the writing process. Taking inspiration from comedies such as Monty Python and the Holy Grail and But I’m a Cheerleader, as well as pulling from her personal experience with being raised in a Christian household, Megan has created in partnership with Eden’s director a story that she feels is both uniquely whimsical and true to her personal life and experiences. Eden has allowed Megan to reflect on her relationship with religion and her journey to discover her own spirituality in a meaningful and cathartic way, while adding a sense of silliness and absurdity that she hopes will allow her audience to connect easily with Eden’s themes. To Megan, Eden is about breaking free of the self-imposed (and often societally-supported) expectation to be perfect, and allowing yourself the freedom to stray from the expected path in order to find yourself. Sometimes, this means realizing you’re in love with your best friend instead of the guy you’re “perfect” for. Sometimes, it means discovering that the universe you live in may not be as black and white as you were raised to believe. Wherever viewers are in their journey, Megan hopes that Eden will give them the boldness to look inward and maybe discover something new about themselves——but most importantly, she hopes that Eden will make them laugh!

Director

Tommie Freundlich

Tommie is a creative from Boone, North Carolina, and a senior in the Western Carolina University film program. “Eden” is her seventh directing project and a love letter to her queer community. Tommie believes that, especially in times like these, sharing queer joy is crucial, and she is enthralled to be able to tell this tale of sapphic love in a style she adores.

Producer

Kyler Stevenson

Kyler Stevenson is a creative in his last year at Western Carolina University, and is using his 3 years of prior short film producing experience to enable him to make this project the best that it can be. He finds the comedic style of the film very entertaining, having a great lifelong appreciation of Scott Pilgrim and Monty Python, and he thinks it is an excellent opportunity to be able to help a team make something in that style, while also helping to promote queer love in a time where we could do to see more of it in the media we consume.

Sound Mixer

Harley Taylor

Harley is a senior Film & Television Production student at Western Carolina University, specializing in location sound mixing. With experience operating boom, managing wireless systems, and troubleshooting on-set audio challenges, Harley brings technical precision and calm focus to every shoot. As a queer and trans filmmaker, Harley values authenticity and collaboration, making Eden a deeply meaningful project both personally and creatively.

Our Fundraising Plan

Our primary goal for fundraising this project is to utilize crowdfunding, supplemented by an accompanying media campaign to encourage greater engagement. Western Carolina University Film and Television will provide match funding for this thesis up to $1,000, which, paired with our crowdfunding, will land us at $2.5k, which will be enough to provide for our needs. Additionally, as part of the Film and Television program, we have access to all the equipment we could want without additional expense. Our primary financial concern is in feeding our cast and crew, hiring our adult actors, and in paying for filming locations. It is our hope that we will be able to minimize these costs through volunteering and securing a fiscal sponsorship, but in order to maintain the quality of the film, such expenses will be necessary to bring about the director's vision.