Cavalier

My name is Arlen Sundberg. I am a student filmmaker at New York University, Tisch School of the Arts, majoring in Film Production, and minoring in both Cinema Studies and History. My films focus on our desensitization to violence as portrayed in contemporary media. For my senior thesis film, Cavalier, I will be further exploring these themes using a hybrid of animation and live-action imagery. In my filmmaking, I place a high emphasis on creating a striking visual environment, highlighting a sense of alienation around my subject.

I have always been fascinated with the human response to armed conflict, growing up I learned the stories of the many veterans in my family, dating back to the Civil War. Later in life, I was greatly influenced by the WWI-themed graphic novels of Jacques Tardi and films such as Stanley Kubrick’s Paths of Glory, narratives of young men and the human toll of war.

My new film, Cavalier, is an experimental animated historical drama set during the First World War, revolving around one soldier’s complex struggle with horror and memory. In between the life and death landscapes of the battlefield, the soldier lives in terror of the next attack while trying to keep body, soul, and reality intact. Mental health concepts, specifically PTSD, were not recognized at the time and thus brushed under the rug, leaving each soldier to cope and dwell on an individual level. This film aims to address those unrecognized struggles by shining a light on the terror of war and its lasting impact on the human psyche.

Logline: Struggling with reality and horror in the trenches of the First World War, a French soldier must mercy-kill a horse, but its screams echo within him.

All funds raised will be directed to the production and distribution of this film. My production team and I have high hopes for this project and plan to submit to the Sundance, Tribeca, and Nantucket film festivals, as well as local and more genre specific festivals. Any contribution or support you are able to offer would be greatly appreciated. We can’t wait to start production on this exciting and important film.

Link to our Pitch Deck: https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1aykiRYibJjvYNx68krusX7bgYH9ebZpwse4yylcPlfI/edit?usp=sharing