
Dinner for Loners - short film on male loneliness
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Dinner for Loners: a ground breaking dark-comedy exposing the world of male loneliness.
.....based on the writer's true story.
"When a heartbroken average Joe's efforts to host a big fat Indian dinner go pear shaped, he is forced to question his motives and reckon with his deep feelings of loneliness."
Yesterday | dir. Danny Boyle
We are raising £20,000 for our short film to help end male loneliness. Please watch our fundraising video (above) for more information. To get in touch or follow our journey, follow us on Instagram : www.instagram.com/dinnerforloners/
WHY THIS FILM?

Every 90 minutes someone dies by suicide - and 76% of these are men.
Did you know that -
- loneliness is as dangerous as smoking 15 cigarettes a day?
- 1 in 5 men don't have a single friend?
- 1 in 3 men don't have a best friend?

We are Dr Vikram Devalia and Dr Keshav Shree, filmmakers and doctors, and we want to end the silent epidemic of men's loneliness through the power of film.
We have found that films on on this topic tends to lack relatable characters and often contain extreme depictions of lonely male protagonists. This leads to further marginalisation of this issue.

'Dinner for Loners' tells the story of a relatable average Joe who finds himself in all too familiar situation. We believe that the plot line and themes in our film will resonate with a broad audience, in particular men affected by loneliness.
We hope that this film will help to raise awareness of this issue by:
Helping men recognise their own feelings of loneliness.
Increasing conversations about men's mental health and reduce social stigma around male loneliness.
Igniting the movement for practical solutions to remedy loneliness.

THE STORY
After being heart-broken by the love of his life, 30 year old Dev tries to put on a brave face and carry on. Growing up in an immigrant household, where boys are taught from a young age to 'man-up' and suppress their emotions, Dev does exactly this.
He tries to rely on his friends, but in a city where everyone's diaries are filled months in advance, dinners-for-one become his new norm. All his friends are busy with life events such as engagements, weddings, having babies and buying houses. No one can find the time for him. Out of sync with all of his friends' traditional life milestones, Dev begins to feel even more alone.
To swap out his usual dinner-for-one at home and get the attention of his friends, he decides to throw an event that will bring all of his nearest and dearest together under one roof - a big fat Indian dinner.
Chungking Express | dir. Wong Kar-wai
To pull this off, he recruits the only people he knows always have time for him…
his dysfunctional overbearing Indian family.
Bend it like Beckham | dir Gurinder Chadha
To win their support, Dev pitches his Dinner idea to his family as a new business venture. However, as family tensions in the kitchen boil over, he realises he may have bitten off more than he can chew...
Things go from bad to worse when Dev's dinner doesn't get the reaction he had hoped for. He finds himself feeling increasingly disconnected from his dinner party guests, leaving him questioning his motives.
Join Dev as he comes to terms with his loneliness and is forced to ask himself the hard questions:
Yesterday | dir. Danny Boyle
Why am I doing this? Who am I doing it for? Will I ever be worth love again?
WHY BACK US?
As co-writers we're both men who have had stoic upbringings, where experiencing and communicating feelings of loneliness is considered a sign of weakness. We are not alone in this, and through this film, we are aiming to change this narrative.
We're also both men who have experienced break-ups in our late twenties and, as a result, understand the realities of singledom and loneliness in a big city.
Lastly, we're both doctors who see men with mental health issues and loneliness in our clinical practice every day, which makes us even more driven to change the statistics around this men’s mental health and loneliness epidemic.
Our film is based on our true stories and we are ready to share it with the world.

WHO ARE WE?

This will be our team's fourth film. We have worked together for over four years, and we are excited to build on our growing success to showcase our next film.
Our last film, "Happy Retirement Mr Pickering" was selected at the Oscar-qualifying HollyShorts Film festival and was screened in 10 countries internationally.
Kevin West in Happy Retirement Mr Pickering
We have some amazing people on our team:

Cinematographer - Estefania Carpio
- Film selected in Raindance 2023
- Multiple Oscar and BAFTA qualifying films
- Worked with MTV, Discovery Channel and Huawei
Editor - Jón Atli Guðjónsson
- Multiple Oscar and BAFTA qualifying films
- Worked with Amazon Prime and Apple TV
Music Composer - Jose-luis Esquivel
- 'Guapangito’ Latin-Grammy nominated 2020
- Nashville, Dallas and San Francisco Symphony Orchestras
- Worked with Netflix, Disney, HBO
Graphic Design and Animation - Emma Beinish
- Emmy Winner, for 'Outstanding Design & Art Direction' for CNN in 2023
- Worked with CNN, MTV+ and Comedy Central
Line Producer - Jean Ciuntu
- Best Producer, University of Greenwich 2023
- Multiple indie films
- VFX Producer
- TEDx Producer
WHAT WE NEED?
We are raising a total of £20,000. This includes:
1. Production costs:
- including hiring a restaurant space for the set
- camera equipment
- paying fair wages to the cast and crew
2. Post-production costs:
- editing
- colour grading
- composing original music
- sound design
3. Distribution costs:
- submitting to film festivals
- marketing costs such as social media advertising
We will shoot our film in spring-summer 2024 over a period of 3-4 days.
THE FUTURE
We hope to see you at a private screening of the film in late 2024. The film will be the launchpad for activism towards ending the silent epidemic of men's loneliness and isolation.
We are collaborating with numerous men's health charities to hone our story and help spread awareness of our film.
As proficient filmmakers, our initial goal is to be selected for Oscar and BAFTA qualifying film festivals. Following a successful festival campaign, we aim to be shortlisted for Oscar and BAFTA awards in 2025, with a view to converting Dinner for Loners into a feature film/TV series in 2027.

If you’ve made it this far... you must be inspired. But guess what, YOU can help make a difference.
Donate NOW and help us to end this silent epidemic.
Organizer

Keshav Shree
Organizer
England