Dear friends and family,

I’m writing to express my absolute gratitude for your support over the last three years here at Syracuse University. My time at film school has been a tremendous experience that I wouldn’t trade for the world. Now I’ve started my final year, and my biggest endeavor yet is on the horizon.

As I am writing this, my friends and I are exactly one month away from beginning the three-day production of my senior thesis narrative short film project. It will serve as a capstone for all of the projects which I’ve produced here at university thus far, as well as a work which will propel my crew-mates and I into the professional world post-graduation. The story of the film is as follows:

Barbara, a reclusive widow, returns a lost camera to a stranger, only for her seemingly good deed to reveal buried secrets between a younger couple.

Titled Samaritan, it tells the story of someone toeing the line between a good deed and interference; an outcast’s fascination with the lives of others. I want to make Samaritan to explore its theme of morality. In an age of hyperfixations and a scarcity of communal trust, how far would you go for a good deed?

On a technical level, I want to make Samaritan to explore storytelling through subtleties. I’m always fascinated by films which say more through actions and visuals that any monologue could do. I hope to create an atmosphere so quiet and tangible that the audience could believe they share the same room with the characters; something which captures a universal dilemma through an intimate and personal story, and leaves the audience questioning their own moral compasses.

As my friends and I close in on our production dates of October 17th-19th, we once more find ourselves in need of your support. A budget of $2,000 would enable us to feed our crew, cast our actors, and find our most suitable filming locations. With your unwavering help and support, there is no doubt that production on Samaritan will serve as one of the most important and tremendous experiences of my life. Join my best friends and I on this wild ride towards the next great step in our filmmaking journey.

We wouldn’t be here without you.

Much love,

Mickey Maroulis