Aden Suchak is a Brooklyn based writer and director. Growing up biracial, half white and half South Asian Indian, has often been a point of confusion for him. As a result of this internal friction, he gravitated toward making documentary films about personal identity, notably Make it Float, a short about a fashion designer’s journey from Lagos to New York. The film’s acceptance into Tribeca Film Festival inspired Aden to pursue filmmaking full-time. In 2020, he won the Scout Film Festival Emerging Filmmakers Grant, sponsored by Colin Trevvorrow, who now serves as his mentor. Later that year, Aden was diagnosed with early onset epilepsy after a string of unprovoked nocturnal seizures. This led him to begin infusing the kinetic realism of his documentary practice with poetry and religious folklore as a form of self-therapy and shift further toward narrative. In 2023, Aden was selected to participate in 1497’s Features Lab with his crime-thriller screenplay Fast Life. He is a recent graduate of the WGAe Support Staff Training Program and is currently developing his first feature, a crime thriller set in his hometown of Albany, NY. He most recently directed a sci-fi short film starring Ajay Naidu (Office Space, Waiting for Godot). He is still learning how to embrace the messy process of discovering one’s identity.

He's currently getting his MFA at Vermont College of Fine Arts (An affiliate of Cal Arts), and these funds are for his thesis film.

Logline: After his criminal benefactors rough him and demand interest payments, an immigrant businessman decides to take control of his own fate.

Why You Should Support (Tagline): A classic crime noir exploring the modern immigrant struggle for acceptance in America. Excess follows Ziad, a muslim store owner indebted to the Russian mob who must choose between faith and family or loyalty and power.

Synopsis: After Ziad's mobster bosses beat him up for refusing to pay interest on a shady loan, he decides to consolidate his cash and take fate into his own hands, endangering his future in order to support his family and forcing him into a deadly confrontation with a dangerous gangster.

Mission Statement: Excess explores the painful sacrifices immigrants are forced to make to support their families. My father gave up his birth citizenship for a future in America. In Excess, Ziad, faces a similar impossible choice, highlighting the deep cost of securing a future for oneself and one's family.

DIRECTOR’S STATEMENT: As a young child, I remember riding the bus with my father to take his citizenship test. In the process, he was forced to give up citizenship to his home country of Tanzania, a sacrifice he made for the betterment of his family, in order to ensure I could have a more stable life in this country. Stories like these are still so important to tell, stories that remind us that at the core of the struggles and sacrifices made by our relatives, friends and community members is always a desire to create and build a better future for all of us. This ethos, instilled in me by my father and my friend whose story inspired Ziad’s is what informs much of my writing and compelled me to render a true and honest depiction of the immigrant experience in today’s America.

OUR GOAL:

We are planning to raise $8k for production and finishing costs. Most of that budget will go into properly feeding and paying our cast & crew, transportation, and kit rentals for our incredible Camera & Sound Teams.

We plan to screen this project through a variety of film festivals across the country. This short film is a proof of concept with the feature film already written, so we hope that a strong festival run will help propel us toward future funding, distribution, and expansion of this world and story.

HOW YOU CAN HELP:

- CONTRIBUTE by making a pledge to our film, or simply sharing this page with your friends and family. Just like in Ziad’s quest, every dollar counts, as we must reach 80% of the goal to receive any of the funds.

- SPREAD THE WORD by sending our link to people you know or anyone you think would be interested in the project! Copy this link and share!