Alcheringa Short Film Project

Introduction

Humans are social creatures: we rely on other people to ground our sense of identity and endow our lives with purpose. But in a world where so many of the people we see are strangers to us--and where we, too, are strangers to them--it is common to feel that our worldly identity is in question, and that our lives lack meaning. To what extent can we recover our sense of humanity by connecting with others and the world around us? What might this look like, and what struggles might we endure in this process?

Our prospective short film, Alcheringa, intends to speak to these everyday feelings of existential tension, driven by how our confrontations with the world beyond us bring us to confront ourselves. The word alcheringa comes from the Indigenous Australian Aranda language; translated as “dream time” by English anthropologists, it refers to a timeless beginning of creation and a spiritual worldview uniting all created things. Alcheringa is an experimental, spiritual film about two strangers who live in the same apartment building and come to understand each other by appearing in each other’s dreams. In reality, this is not a plot-driven film, but a collection of visual poetry woven together to speak to these themes.

Story Summary

Adriana (F, 23) and Sylvain (M, 27) live across from each other in the same apartment building, but are strangers to each other. Sylvain is a lonely intellectual whose devotion to self-realization has led him to sacrifice his connections with the outside world, while Adriana struggles with how to live out her ideal of loving those around her when she finds they are unreceptive. After a wordless encounter, they appear in each other’s dreams.

In her dream, Adriana wades through an idyllic meadow and finds herself at the site of an ancient tree, from which Sylvain descends to teach her how he came to understand the language of nature.

In Sylvain’s dream, he breathes life into a body of sand and awakens Adriana, who shares with him how she came to find heaven on earth after grappling with its apparent emptiness, and how her relationship with the ocean reinforces her ongoing love for the world.

Sylvain awakens to the sound of Adriana singing outside and realizes that he was a character in her dream just as she was one in his, and that their dreams have connected them with each other in reality.

If you're interested in reading the full screenplay, please contact aroraproductions[dot]bc[at]gmail[dot]com and we can give you access to the link, which has been password protected for privacy.

Aesthetic Inspiration

Alcheringa is structurally and aesthetically driven by poetic truth, and not a patterned narrative. Our goal is to craft a series of moving paintings which will invoke a strong sense of dreamtime and appreciation for life even in the most unexpected places. This is comparable to the imagistic atmosphere of the work of Tarkovsky and Bergman. All of which will be shot on location featuring the natural beauty of British Columbia. You can view some of our development photography in the proof of concept video below:

Core Crew

Cora Hermary - Writer, Director, Co-Producer

Cora grew up in Red Deer, Alberta, and has been living in Vancouver, British Columbia since 2015. She holds an interdisciplinary degree in philosophy from UBC, where she is returning for graduate school in the fall to write on the relationship between the human spirit and its situatedness in the cosmos. Her research is inspired by her ongoing fascination with the nature of communication between ourselves and the world. Through her experiences with local independent filmmakers and their projects beginning in 2018, personal videography, and getting to know her creative collaborator, Aaron, in 2021, she began considering film as a way for her to explore these philosophical questions through the poetics of visual imagery. Alcheringa marks her debut as screenwriter and director, a synthesis of reflections on spirituality, nature, and love.

Aaron Kenney - Co-Producer, Camera Assistant, Gaffer

Aaron Kenney grew up in smalltown rural Alberta, where, thanks to his father’s local film column, he had the privilege of watching just about every movie that made it to his neck of the woods. Naturally, he started making his own films and pursued filmmaking at UBC where he recently graduated. Last year, during the Congress of Humanity and Social Sciences, he had the privilege of interviewing a number of distinguished documentary filmmakers. He was overwhelmed by their sincere efforts to make a difference in the world. When Cora Hermary shared her vision for the film, Aaron was struck by this same passion and the film's visual power to open people to its healing perspective. He believes that if Alcheringa can provide even the slightest change in external perspective, a world of hope can flourish.

Inanna Cusi - Director of Photography

Inanna Cusi was born in France to a Mexican father and Austrian mother. She grew up on Vancouver island, Canada and graduated in 2020 from the SFU film program. She is an award-winning director, producer, cinematographer and painter. She mixes experimental techniques of process-driven filmmaking with fictional narratives to push the bounds of cinema. With Alcheringa, Inanna hopes her experienced hand can give room for the subtlety and silence of the living world of light to emerge organically in each frame.

Where will your money go?

While we are prepared to make this film on a barebones budget, at the moment, our pre-production and production costs are being entirely paid out of pocket. This means our crew is composed entirely of volunteers working with whatever equipment we have on hand. However, the true breadth of vision cannot be realised without your support. To give you a clear sense of our priorities, here is a tiered funding list of what we can accomplish with additional backing using approximations from our current working budget.

Tier 1 ($5,000)

This tier ensures that absolute essentials like location costs, food, and crew transportation will be covered without dipping into our personal savings. It also provides room for some necessary equipment rental to meet the demands of our moving shots and exterior shooting.

Breakdown:

$1,000 - Transportation and living expenses (over 2.5 weeks)

$ 500 - Camera Equipment (basic lenses and glidecam rental)

$1,500 - Cast and Crew Catering

$2,000 - Location Rentals

Tier 2 ($7,000)

This tier allows us to rent more specific equipment (like a macro-lens), better lights for our interior, and proper grip equipment for shaping that light. This will also cover our art expenses like wardrobe, makeup and props.

Breakdown:

$ 500 - Camera Equipment

$ 400 - Grip Equipment

$ 300 - Light Rentals

$ 450 - Prop Purchases and Rentals

$ 350 - Wardrobe and Makeup

Tier 3 ($9,000)

While we are all working as volunteers, a small honorarium, available at this tier, will be given to each member of the cast and crew to acknowledge their hard work on the project.

Breakdown:

$ 200 - Director

$ 200 - Producer

$ 400 - Cast (x2)

$ 200 - Camera

$ 200 - Sound

$ 200 - Costume Designer

$ 200 - Editor

$ 200 - Assistant Editor (sound mastering, colour, basic VFX)

$ 200 - Composer

Tier 4 ($12,000)

This tier covers the rest of our production expenses, including special effects and a 10% contingency fund should any complications arise. This will also cover all of our post-production expenses, from editing the film and mixing its sound to ensuring the short will be shown at festivals across Canada.

Breakdown:

$ 500 - Special Effects

$ 300 - Post Production Expenses (FX templates, sound royalties, folly work)

$ 200 - Legal Expense

$ 300 - Film Festival Marketing and Attendance

$ 1,200 - Contingency Funding

$ 500 - Quality of Life Expenses (Office supplies, expanded catering, wrap party…etc)

Tier 5 and Beyond ($13,000 +)

We can expand the honorarium to our cast and crew at this tier, which will scale with additional support. Surplus funds will also go towards saving for a successful distribution strategy so that our film can reach more audiences.

Other ways you can help

This is a volunteer-led project, so all help will be greatly appreciated.

Firstly, we can save on location costs if there is anyone who owns property that features some of the natural landmarks required for our film. Even if you don’t personally own the property, we welcome any leads in this department.

Secondly, we are always in need of marketing material. If you are inspired by the project and want to produce works of art that might be used for social media marketing and so forth, please do not hesitate to contact us.

Lastly, we encourage you to share our campaign with anyone who might be interested.

If you feel like there’s any way you can be of assistance, please contact us at

aroraproductions[dot]bc[at]gmail[dot]com