Hi friends, family, and fellow storytellers,
My name is Noelle Leslie-Morgan, and I’m a graduate film student at Emerson College working on my MFA thesis film, The Unknown.
THE STORY
The Unknown is a short narrative film about the emotional weight of choice. It follows Claire, a single mother who finds out she’s pregnant again and is suddenly faced with two very different futures. In one version of her story, she keeps the baby and struggles to balance everything. In another, she places the child up for adoption and builds a more stable life, though the decision weighs heavily on her, a weight she can never set down.
ORIGINS AND THEMES
This story is deeply personal to me. I was adopted and raised as an only child, but I later discovered that I was actually the seventh child my birth mother had. That fact alone brought up so many questions about the choices she made, the circumstances she faced, and how she carried the weight of those decisions.
While this film is not my birth mother’s exact story, it’s a way for me to explore the complexities of motherhood, sacrifice, and choice from multiple perspectives. I’m fascinated by the moments that shape a parent’s path, the quiet decisions that ripple through lives in ways we may never fully understand.
This project is a chance to process my own curiosity about how someone decides to keep or give up a child, while creating a space for audiences to reflect on the universality of difficult choices, the unknowns we all live with, and the ways those choices shape our identities.
THE GOAL
We are raising $5,000 to bring this film to life. Every dollar raised will go directly toward production and post-production costs, helping us create a professional, cinematic, and deeply moving story.
Here’s how the funds will be used:
- Production Design & Locations – Building a believable, lived-in world for our characters. This includes set dressing, props, and securing key locations.
- Cast & Crew Support – Providing meals, transportation, and modest stipends to the talented team dedicating their time and artistry to this project.
- Logistics & Essentials – Covering the less glamorous but vital needs such as food for long shoot days, external hard drives for secure backups, and transportation costs for moving cast, crew, and equipment.
- Post-Production – Editing, color correction, and sound design to ensure the final film looks and sounds beautiful.
- Festival Submissions & Distribution – Once completed, we want to share this film with the widest audience possible through festivals and screenings.
This project is a team effort with some of my favorite collaborators and will complete my MFA in Visual and Media Arts at Emerson College. Thank you for helping me bring The Unknown to life. This is more than a thesis film — it’s a love letter to mothers, to sacrifice, and to the quiet strength that shapes our lives.