Tala is a Filipino American internet star who has just survived a suicide attempt. After her best friend Julian picks her up from the hospital, she once again faces a future she’s long struggled to see herself in, especially in a world gone mad and only getting madder. What does it mean to commit to living through such volatile times? From where do we draw the strength to endure collective political tragedy when personal tragedy has already rendered us debilitated beyond the point of recognition, not just in our own eyes but even in the eyes of those who love us?

This is a proof-of-concept short film for a miniseries that has lived in my heart for years now. A story of a wayward young woman’s misadventures through the twilight of a dying world, catching glimmers of the next, Tala’s story began with a TV pilot I wrote during my senior year of film school. Writing Tala’s story has helped me make sense of my own, a life marked by mental illness, patriarchal violence against women, the immigrant experience and the bizarre trappings, good and bad, of the online panopticon.

With your support, this short film will not only go on to be presented in film festivals on its own, it will serve to tell Tala’s whole story. Your backing will not only enable us to produce a highly professional film and properly compensate our all-Chicago team, it will kickstart careers and push the voices that need to be heard to the front.