The Hands That Feed, a short film by Kyra Zabretsky

THE HANDS THAT FEED: A thesis film directed and written by Kyra Zabretsky. Produced by Annaliese Pillitteri.

In this story, Taylor and his grandmother, Louisa, live in a small home in a small, forgotten town in West Virginia. Here, Louisa works at a fast food restaurant, and Taylor goes to school, gets high grades, and gets high off the drugs he slings for his best friend’s, Ryan’s, family. Coming off of Taylor’s cancer remission from a few months ago, Louisa is desperate to catch up on her bills and eventually pay for his college tuition. Miraculously, the Saturn Group calls her to offer her the opportunity of a lifetime: an entrepreneurial, remote job where she can create her own hours and gain bonuses by recruiting more employees. Soon enough, she’ll have a passive, easy salary triple what she’s making now. Seems harmless?

Famous last words.

Evil comes in many forms. It may have no face at all, or it may be every single face around you. This is a story of betrayal, corruption, crime, and being a product of circumstance. We are taken through a real vignette of the cycles of survival that low-income households are shoved into and hardly ever released from, no matter how they try. When you fight back, you get shoved down even lower.

This film will be going into production November 15th-17th in Syracuse, NY.

ANY and all donations will be put towards, but not limited to, set design, travel and lodging for talent, location rentals, post-production costs, festival submissions, catering, equipment, and talent compensation.

We appreciate anything and everything — if you can’t donate, please share with your friends! Thank you!