Sourdough synopsis: A recent college graduate begins documenting the year after she graduates, but struggles to find her footing amid new challenges.

Hello! Sourdough is a student short film written and directed by Allison Ruschill and produced by Sophie Sanders. Sourdough follows the life of Penn Forester, a recently graduated 22-year-old with goals of making it big in the marketing space in Chicago. The film takes place over 9 months and shows the happenings of Penn’s life, both positive and negative, with the overall theme of self-care and continued growth through hard times.

The film shows Penn’s story through a variety of cameras and angles utilizing more non-traditional methods of filmmaking. The films that inspired Allison to make this decision were Lady Bird (2017), Dìdi (2024) and Missing (2023). Much like these films, we will be using webcam, older digital and VHS cameras, as well as an Arri Alexa Mini LF from our Department's Equipment Room.

The funding for this project will go towards a number of things including feeding the crew, decorating the sets to feel lived in as well as equipment rental and festival entries down the line.

Allison Ruschill is a Filmmaker in her senior year studying Film and Media at the University of Kansas. During her time at KU she has worked on many student sets and professionally on commercials, a made-for-TV feature and a Reality TV show. Allison chose to write and direct this story because she feels that while the narrative of someone graduating high school is a common narrative, graduating college and its struggles is not often talked about or addressed. We are often expected to have immediate success right out of college or at least be progressing in some way right away, which isn’t always the case depending on many different circumstances. We are not failures for not getting the first job we interview for or not making new friends immediately. She wanted to showcase that through Penn's navigation of these difficult moments in life.

Sourdough is meant to be a story of self-discovery and learning to move past failure. Penn loses herself while trying to fit into what she thought she needed to be doing and slowly forgot to take care of herself. Much like sourdough, if you don’t feed and nurture yourself with things that bring you joy, eventually the weight of everything will bring you down whether you intended to or not. Sourdough is a reminder to keep going and prioritize hobbies, people, and locations that bring you up and lift you so that when things get hard you have the tools and resources to get back up.

All donors will be given a special thanks in the credits of the film!