Help Bring My Short Film “Gold Plated Chain” to Life

Hi, I’m Bryce Willard Smith — filmmaker, artist, and someone who’s spent the last decade immersed in the wild, vibrant, sometimes painful intersections of nightlife, queerness, performance, and identity. I’m reaching out today to ask for your support in bringing my short film Gold Plated Chain to life.

Gold Plated Chain is a story I’ve carried with me for a long time. It’s a raw, shimmering, and sometimes dark portrait of queer survival — set in the liminal spaces where performance becomes protection, and desire and danger often blur. This isn’t just a film to me. It’s a love letter to the queer community that raised me, a mirror held up to the contradictions we live through, and a reckoning with the costs of performing strength in a world that fetishizes and commodifies our pain.

I’m making this film because I have to. Because I know these characters. I’ve been these characters. And I want to give them the depth, beauty, and grit they deserve.

Right now, here in phase 1, we’re raising $10,000 to finish covering production costs: gear rentals, location fees, paying our cast and crew fairly, hair and makeup, costumes, props, meals, and any other last-minute expenses that may arise. Every single dollar will go directly toward making Gold Plated Chain as stunning, honest, and powerful as the story demands.

This project means everything to me — not just as a filmmaker, but as someone trying to document and uplift queer lives with complexity and care. If you’ve ever seen yourself in a character who was too messy for the mainstream or too honest for the algorithm, I hope you’ll consider supporting this film.

Thank you so much for being here. Let’s make something unforgettable together.

—Bryce