Logline: Burdened by generational trauma passed down from her mother, a woman forbids her son from sleeping in the dark until an innocent act of defiance forces her to question whether that fear is protection or what’s keeping a greater darkness at bay.

Why Now? Fear doesn’t always announce itself as fear. Sometimes it disguises itself as care, rules, and protection. UMBRA comes from that quiet, familiar place when someone you love is trying to keep you safe, but is really trying to keep themselves from reliving something they never healed from. Many of us were raised by parents who carried experiences they didn’t have the language to explain. We felt it in the rules we were given, the things we weren’t allowed to do, and the tension we didn’t understand. UMBRA is about that moment when a child begins to grow beyond those rules and the parent is forced to confront what they’ve been holding onto all along. This story matters now because it’s intimate and human. It’s about the cost of unspoken trauma, and the love that exists even when fear gets in the way.