UN ELEFANTE - A Short Film About Grief
Donation protected
UN ELEFANTE
Hello! My name is Lucia Plaza and I am a Film Directing MFA candidate at the Feirstein Graduate School of Cinema in Brooklyn, New York. I am fundraising to produce my thesis project, a 15 minute short film adaptation of a short story written by my aunt, Julia Helena Bermudez. After suddenly losing her husband, she decided to write this story to help others cope with their grief. This is an opportunity to finally make a film in my native language of Spanish, to honor my late uncle, and also to explore the nature of bereavement with a bit of humor and levity. This story depicts the brutal and often absurd nature of grief and what it looks like to keep going when it feels like your world has been destroyed. In the wise words of someone smarter than me, “grief does not shrink; we grow around it”.
Log line: A woman grappling with the recent devastating loss of her husband tries to grapple with her grief and reckon with a new unwanted companion– an elephant who won’t leave her alone.
The Story: “Un Elefante” is a Spanish-language dramedy featuring Julia, a recent widow trying to grapple with the loss of her beloved husband and the appearance of an elephant whose presence is suffocating her. Julia seeks help from the wise grief counselor, Rocio, who helps Julia learn to live with her elephant. Her grief feels all-consuming and insurmountable at first, but with the help of her counselor and her new shadow, Duelo, she begins to learn to grow around her grief. This project aims to speak to the nature of grief through Julia’s experience. Delivering a message of empathy and hope, we want the film to speak to anyone who has experienced loss and paint a portrait of grief equal parts levity and compassion.
Why Should You Support Our Project: Stories about grief are a dime a dozen; it’s unfortunately a universal human experience. However, our project seeks to add levity and nuance to a conversation about grief and what it means to keep going after loss. Julia’s elephant, Duelo, symbolizes Julia’s grief and the part of ourselves that wills us to keep going. Through a mixture of live-action and animation, our film offers a new perspective. Our film references odd sitcoms like “Wilfred”, as well as dramas like A Ghost Story.
Your contributions will help us pay our performers, feed our cast and crew, and provide a budget for production design and costuming. Additionally, these funds will go towards additional editing-related expenses and festival submissions.
Perks:
Executive Producer: $ 4,000
-Signed poster | Private preview | Screen and IMDB credit
Associate Producer: $1,000
-Signed poster | Screen and IMDB credit
Awesome Friend: $200
-Screen and IMDB "Special Thanks" credit
If you can’t contribute monetarily, that’s no problem! You can still help us create “Un Elefante” by sharing the link to our crowdfunding page and getting the word out about our film.
Bios:
- Director Lucia Plaza is a Latina filmmaker and photographer from Miami, Florida. Raised in a family of Cuban-American exiles and her Guatemalan-born mother, she is passionate about telling stories from the Latino/a point of view. She has a Bachelor of the Arts degree in Art from Florida International University, with minors in International Relations and Art History.
- Producer Tyler Cino Maradiaga is a Nicaraguan American independent filmmaker based in Brooklyn. Tyler carried a passion for social justice since their undergraduate years at UC Berkeley and through almost a decade of working in the Diversity, Equity and Inclusion field. Believing storytelling being a catalyst for change, Tyler’s work utilizes drama, comedy, and fantastical genres to explore themes of identity and social issues.
- Producer Arielle Duran is a proud New Yorker and versatile storyteller of Puerto Rican and Dominican descent. Since graduating from the University of South Florida’s Zimmerman School, where she studied broadcasting and production, Arielle’s theatrical talents have been showcased in notable television shows such as The Calling and American Rust, among other projects. In addition to acting, Arielle is currently pursuing screenwriting as a graduate student at the Feirstein Graduate School of Cinema.
- Producer Yuanwei Wang, an aspiring young Asian American filmmaker, looks to reach new horizons as he is studying to become a film producer at Feirstein Graduate School of Cinema. With a background already in screenwriting, he is looking to take the next step to work in the production field behind the scenes and on set with the logistics and business side of entertainment.
- Cinematographer Luisa Madrid, of Peruvian and Colombian descent, is a first-generation Latina-American who believes in the power of narrative storytelling. As a fine technician, a strong collaborator, and an intuitive artist, Luisa has a unique antenna for human fragility and resilience. With a background in social work and documentary photography, she has developed an eye attuned to detecting emotional intimacy, helping her to ground the surreal with a humanistic approach.
- Production Designer Johnny Taranto is a filmmaker and artist living in Brooklyn. He graduated with departmental honors with a BFA in Fine Arts from Parsons, The New School for Design in New York City, and is currently pursuing his MFA in Cinema Arts, with a concentration in Directing, at the Feirstein Graduate School of Cinema at Brooklyn College.
- Editor Michael Molina is a Latinx editor based in NYC. He received his MFA post-production at Feirstein Graduate School of Cinema at Brooklyn College. His background in fine art, graphic design and theatre informs his retrospective but analytical approach to his work. He is fueled by his curiosity to explore different aspects of the creative realm.
Organizer
Lucia Plaza
Organizer
Brooklyn, NY