Hi! My name is Vasilios "Sil" Papapitsios and I'm a Southern queer, HIV-positive, disabled filmmaker and multidisciplinary artist raising $7,500 to complete the first chapter of PARAPRONOIA—an absurdist recovery musical film about addiction, spiritual transformation, and collective liberation.

Help Us Complete PARAPRONOIA!

Goal: Raise $7,500 for editing, color grading, sound design, visual effects, and development of future chapters. (@parapronoia)

Check out the first song Lucid Nightmare on all streaming services! Produced by Rush Davis featuring Star Amerasu and MAHAWAM.

Progress So Far:

Dear friends,

Thank you for being here.

Three years ago, I was in the midst of a severe mental health and addiction crisis.

Two years ago, I was learning how to walk again after paralysis.

Today, having recently celebrated two years in recovery, I'm finally ready to share what happened.

I'm raising $7,500 to complete Lucid Nightmare, the first chapter of PARAPRONOIA, and begin building the remaining chapters: Love Within and Come Alive.

Listen to the audio samples from Love Within and Come Alive (DO IT!!!)

PARAPRONOIA is an absurdist live-action and animation hybrid musical featuring cosmic spirit guides, mutant news anchors, inter-dimensional wormholes, alien-human hybrids, and the possibility that the universe may be conspiring to help us after all.

This fundraiser supports the completion of PARAPRONOIA, but it is also an investment in my continued work as an artist and storyteller. The film is the immediate goal. The larger mission is creating art that transforms fear into connection, healing, humor, and hope.

With your help, Lucid Nightmare will be completed this summer, bringing the first chapter of PARAPRONOIA to life. I can't wait to share it with you.

Where Your Support Goes

Funding Goal: $7,500

$600 — Final Picture Edit. Completing the narrative edit of Lucid Nightmare, refining pacing and transitions for final post-production with Jing Niu.

$1,400 — Color Grade. Professional grading by Kenzo Le, our cinematographer, to create the surreal, dreamlike visual language and unify the film’s aesthetic.

$1,000 — Sound Design & Final Mix. Dialogue cleanup, sound design, mixing, and mastering by Margot Padilla.

$1,500 — Visual Effects. Completing key VFX shots, compositing, cleanup, and enhancements with Eugene Vernikov.

$3,000 — Initial Development for Love Within & Come Alive, the final chapters of the film. Concept art, character design, storyboards, test shoots, and world-building — expanding the story through live action, practical effects, stop-motion, 2.5D animation, and emerging AI-assisted workflows.

Stretch Goal: $12,500

If we surpass our initial goal, additional funds accelerate development of the remaining sequences of PARAPRONOIA, supporting further:

Reaching this goal helps transform PARAPRONOIA from a completed first chapter into the beginning of a much larger creative universe.

I've never been more driven to complete a project than PARAPRONOIA.

It feels like the culmination of years of pain, survival, and transformation. It's an opportunity to turn some of my most difficult experiences into art that might offer hope, laughter, and a sense of belonging. More than anything, I want it to help people who are struggling feel seen and remind them they are not alone.

The project carries special meaning because I began making it during one of the most challenging periods of my life. In 2024, I was learning how to walk again after paralysis. Just weeks after leaving the hospital, I directed and shot Lucid Nightmare while still using crutches, only able to stand for short periods of time. Finishing this film has become inseparable from my own recovery journey.

PARAPRONOIA is also deeply personal because it is my first short film as a writer and director. After more than a decade working across film, television, and digital media as an editor, producer, and creative collaborator, I am excited to finally bring a vision to life that is entirely my own and share it with audiences.

Help me by donating and sharing this campaign!

Please reach out directly with any special inquires.

Why Mutant-Alien Hybrids?

I think all of us are mutants. We are transformed by the things we survive. Addiction changes us. Illness changes us. Grief, love, and recovery change us.

For a long time, I saw those changes as evidence that something had gone wrong. PARAPRONOIA imagines another possibility.

The mutants here aren’t monsters. They’re survivors– dreamers, weirdos, and anyone who has ever felt different from the world around them. The Human Illumination Virus is simply the film’s way of asking: What if the thing you thought was breaking you apart was actually breaking you open?

What is PARAPRONOIA?

The title combines two opposing ideas: Paranoia = the belief that the universe is conspiring against us… and Pronoia = the belief that the universe is conspiring to help us.

What if the very experiences that seemed determined to destroy us were actually trying to transform us, to show us the wound is where the light enters?

At its heart, PARAPRONOIA is an alchemical transformation told across three songs and three chapters—Lucid Nightmare (the descent), Love Within (the initiation), and Come Alive (the celebration).

This Story Matters

We are living through an era defined by fear, isolation, information overload, and profound uncertainty. Many of us feel disconnected– from each other, from our bodies, from our communities, and sometimes even from ourselves.

PARAPRONOIA began with a question that has followed me for years: Can we heal in environments that make us sick?

This story is about resilience, imagination, recovery, and the courage to ask for help when we need it most. It’s an invitation to find hope in unlikely places, beauty in the absurd, and connection in a world that often encourages separation—and a reminder that even in our darkest moments, transformation remains possible.

The Three Chapters

Lucid Nightmare [12 min.] — The Descent.

Sil, a queer artist, watches reality unravel as a mysterious viral outbreak sweeps the world. As paranoia, media overload, and panic collide, Sil descends into a fractured reality of strange broadcasts, mutations, and visions that blur the line between psychosis and prophecy. Part absurdist comedy, part musical fever dream, part recovery memoir.

Love Within [15 min.] — The Initiation.

After succumbing to psychosis and overdose, Sil is pulled through an inter-dimensional wormhole in their television and cast into The Void— a liminal space between life and death. Mutated into an alien-human hybrid, alone and unsure they want to survive, Sil confronts their darkness before finally asking for help… in the form of two cosmic spirit guides who are equal parts divine and deeply unserious. Together they journey through frequency caves, dollhouse minds, and impossible dimensions, where Sil begins to realize the distance between paranoia and pronoia may be nothing more than perception.

Come Alive [8 min.] — The Celebration.

Sil emerges from the Spirit Realm into the Cosmic Culture Club—a vibrant gathering of mutant hybrids, dreamers, fuck-ups, and beautifully strange beings who have all survived transformations of their own. As the Club prepares a reality-shifting broadcast, Sil faces one final challenge: finding the courage to sing their unique "soul note" to the world and share the message entrusted to them by the Spirit Guides... Through music, dance, practical creature effects, and a spectacular mutant musical celebration, a personal recovery story becomes a collective awakening. Sil discovers a truth they couldn't see while trapped in fear: no one heals alone. The story was never meant to end at rock bottom. It was always about learning how to come alive.

Influences

If Everything Everywhere All At Once and Sorry to Bother You had a lovechild, it might look something like PARAPRONOIA—the accidental (much younger) mutant stepsister of Hedwig and the Angry Inch, all theatrical, experimental electro-art-pop.

MEET THE MUTANTS

PARAPRONOIA was built through community. The film features a diverse ensemble of artists, including multiple LGBTQ+ and HIV-positive creatives whose lived experiences shaped the heart of the project both in front of and behind the camera.

Key Creative Team

Vasilios “Sil” Papapitsios

Writer, Director, Producer, Editor, Lead Actor & Vocalist

Queer, HIV-positive, disabled filmmaker and multidisciplinary artist. Their work has been supported by Visual AIDS, the California Arts Council, UCLA’s Through Positive Eyes Residency, the Outfest Screenwriting Lab, the Write It Out! Fellowship, and The Black List, where their pilot The Mark One Motor Lodge was recognized as a Script of the Week.

Fresh Carreras (The Guardians of Justice, Brooklyn Girls Fight Club)

Producer

Award winning producer, writer, and director whose work spans HBO, Netflix, BET, Sony, and collaborations with artists including Travis Scott, Elton John, and The Weeknd.

Marco Moliterni (Jane, Girls Weekend, Sleeping Dogs Lie)

Producer

Producer, writer, and director, whose credits include Jane starring Chloe Bailey, Girls Weekend directed by Kyra Sedgwick for the Sundance Episodic Program, and Sleeping Dogs Lie, which he wrote, directed, and produced starring Diego Calva (Club Kid).

Kenzo Le (Outfest, HollyShorts, Dances With Films)

Director of Photography

Queer Asian-American cinematographer whose sensory-driven visual work has screened at major festivals including Outfest, HollyShorts, Dances With Films, and LALIFF.

Stacia Muse

Production Designer & Costume Designer

Designer specializing in costume design, production design, sustainable fashion, immersive world-building, and speculative visual storytelling.

Jim Ojala (Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Where the Wild Things Are)

Special Effects Artist

Acclaimed creature and makeup effects artist known for creating practical effects for film, television, and genre storytelling.

Jing Niu (Everything Everywhere All At Once)

Editor

Director and editor whose work spans narrative film, documentary, science fiction, music videos, and visual albums including Jennifer Lopez’s This Is Me… Now: A Love Story; with projects screening at SXSW and the London Short Film Festival.

Eugene Vernikov (Passing, Beasts of No Nation)

Visual Effects Supervisor

Visual effects artist and supervisor whose work bridges traditional post-production, compositing, 3D workflows, and emerging technologies in service of story.

Margot Padilla (FOREVERDOG, Moguls of Media)

Post-Production Sound Mixer

Margot Padilla is a Los Angeles-based audio engineer and post-production specialist dedicated to supporting BIPOC and LGBTQ+ creators.

Rush Davis (SZA, Doja Cat, Kaytranada, Tokimonsta)

Music Producer

Multidisciplinary artist, producer, DJ, and creative director whose collaborators include some of today’s most innovative musicians.

MAHAWAM / Malik Mays

Co-Writer, Composer & Recording Artist

Oakland-based Black, queer, nonbinary, HIV-positive musician whose work explores discovery, reclamation, joy, and purpose through an intersectional lens.

Star Amerasu [Ah-Mer-Ah-Su] (Major!, Silverback Mountain)

Recording Artist

Performance and new media artist working across music, film, theater, and DJ performance. Her debut album Star was named one of Billboard’s Top 20 LGBT Albums of 2018, Outfest named her a multidisciplinary artist-in-residence in 2023, and her short film After Hours premiered at Frameline in 2024.

Featured Cast

Jonathan Christian Fernandez

Newsman / Spirit Guide / Help Line Narrator

Bilingual actor, voice artist, and registered nurse who serves as one of the guiding voices through Sil’s journey.

Bri Giger (Los Angeles Funniest Woman 2018)

Newswoman / Spirit Guide

Actress, comedian, and creator whose performance brings humor and heart to PARAPRONOIA’s dreamscape.

Scarlett Letters

Sebean Ransom

Trans performance artist, drag performer, burlesque entertainer, and multimedia creator whose work blends glamour, absurdity, beauty, and chaos.

Tonatzin Mondragon

Mystic Medium

Mexican and Native American actress and filmmaker with more than two decades of experience across film, television, and commercial media.

Carlton Wilborn (Madonna’s Blonde Ambition & Girlie Show Tours)

The Great Central Sun

Award-winning author, educator, HIV advocate, AIDS epidemic survivor, and former principal dancer whose presence brings profound wisdom and historical resonance to the film.

Shawba McLaughlin (Merry & Gay)

Local Alien Hybrid Mutant

Actor, performer, and natural-born scene stealer whose bold personality, booming sense of humor, and joyful authenticity leave a lasting impression…exactly the kind of lovable chaos every mutant community needs.

Thank You

PARAPRONOIA began as a way to make sense of my own experiences. Over time, it became something larger– a story about transformation, connection, healing, and the possibility of finding meaning in even our most difficult chapters.

Thank you for helping bring PARAPRONOIA into the world.

With love,

Vasilios “Sil” Papapitsios

PS: Check us out and share the vision to help us reach a wider audience! Thank you so much!

Follow our journey on Instagram for Teasers, Behind the Scenes, Film and Song updates and more mystic mutant magic.

*Share this page on Instagram or Facebook.

*Send it to a friend or a family member who might be down to support this film.

*Have time to spare? Help us out on the production. Just DM me if you want to support in this way!

*Like and Comment on the posts about this campaign, interaction boosts the post so the right people can see it.

(Hint: the newspaper text body is actually the complete Human Illumination Virus manifesto)

Still from Visual Aids' Day With(out) Art Edit

Still from Visual Aids' Day With(Out) Art Edit

BTS of Sebean Ransom mutating LIVE! played by Scarlett Letters

Concept art of The Great Central Sun

Concept art of The Mystic Medium channeling The Great Central Sun