Telling Zee's Story

Our brother, Zee, was many things to many people. In a few words, he was exceptionally smart, wildly popular, loyal, funny, weird, and charming all wrapped in one — yet he was friendly, he cared about people, and was down to earth (except when his ego became inflated while producing videos of himself skateboarding in our driveway as a teenager). He was infamously known for his creepily long toes that he used to pinch people. We would also be remiss if we didn’t mention his big smile that showed off his blindingly white teeth.

So when Zee died in January 2017 from a drug overdose, many people — no matter how long ago they had last spoken to him — were deeply affected by his death.


Since his death, we (Anna and Caroline, Zee’s sisters), along with our family and many of Zee’s friends, have been navigating our way through that thing called the “new normal.” Learning how to deal with Zee’s death was — and still is — confusing and intimidating. Confronting not only his death, but also the topic of addiction, is something we haven’t completely been able to do.

With your support, this short film project is our way to do that.

This summer, we’re going on a journey to help us heal, gain a bit of closure, preserve his memory, and learn new things about him. We will be traveling around to conduct interviews with people he was close to throughout his life. From to the kids he grew up with (R-block) to the people he went to college with, boarding school friends, coworkers, friends who were like family, and everything in between, there is no shortage of people who have expressed willingness to help us with this project.


This project is important to us because we, and especially Anna, realized after his death that we didn’t have the full picture of who he was.

All three of us went to boarding school, Zee lived in Raleigh for a few years growing up, and Anna traveled a lot and lived abroad. Because of these gaps of time away from one another, there are things we feel we missed out on.

Luckily, the thing about Zee was that he made friends in every room he walked into, and the memories people have of him hold lasting impressions. We feel that our healing would best be shared with those people. It’s important to us that we not only remember and preserve the things about him that made him so special to us, but also piece together who he was through the eyes of his friends and family. With their help, we’re hoping to get the fullest picture of him we possibly can. We want those who were close to him to find peace in this project, as well.


We created this donation page in order to ask for some assistance with our journey. For this project, we are hoping to raise $5,000 for the following expenses:

— Camera + lenses
— External microphones
— Miscellaneous camera equipment
— Video editing software
— Travel (including gas, food, and accommodation)

Any leftover funds will be donated to an initiative in Eastern North Carolina working to fight opioid addiction.

Please stay tuned for a map showing our travel plans, clips from the road, and other updates related to this project.

We are so thankful for the support and outpouring of love we’ve received from family and friends so far. With every donation, you’re helping us tell Zee’s story. Thank you for taking the time to read our story and for your consideration in helping us fund our project. Please don’t hesitate to contact us with any questions or ideas you have.

Much love,

Anna and Caroline