<div>Trigger Warning: Mentions of Suicide
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<div>This film is about and dedicated to my best friend. On July 25, 2024, he died by suicide, a loss that irrevocably altered my life and the lives of everyone who loved him.
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<div>The film explores the aftermath of that event: the silence that follows, the questions that have no answers, and the emotional disorientation of grief that arrives in waves rather than stages. It is deeply rooted in my own lived experience; attempting to process shock, guilt, anger, love, and longing, often all at once. It captures the fragile, unsteady process of learning how to exist in a world that no longer contains someone who once felt essential to it.
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<div>Central to this story is the shared grief between my girlfriend and I, as she was just as close to him as I was. The film reflects how grief can both strain and strengthen relationships, forcing vulnerability where words often fail.
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<div>This project is not an attempt to explain or resolve suicide, but to sit honestly with its impact. It is about the struggle of processing an unthinkable loss through a changing relationship. As my capstone/thesis film at SCAD, this work serves as an artistic and personal culmination that transforms grief into remembrance, and pain into something shared, witnessed, and honored.
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<div>The funds raised for this film will ensure the story is told with the care, intention, and respect it requires. Given the deeply personal and sensitive subject matter, financial support allows the production to move at a thoughtful pace, providing a safe and focused environment for everyone involved.
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<div>Funding will directly support production and post-production needs, including professional equipment, sound, editing, color, and music. These elements are essential to conveying the film’s emotional weight through subtlety, atmosphere, and silence rather than explanation.
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<div>The funds will also help the film reach audiences beyond completion through festival submissions and exhibition, allowing the project to serve not only as a capstone thesis, but as a memorial and a point of connection for others navigating grief and loss.
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<div>In gratitude for their support, donors will be acknowledged in the film’s credits and will receive a set of four thoughtfully designed postcards intended to be shared with loved ones as reminders of how deeply they are loved, remembered, and missed.
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DAXESH Patel

Archisha Shankarmahesh

The Cat Tattoo - SCAD Student Film

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