SARA
Jessica Hinkson
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LOGLINE
SARA is a dramatic short film about a woman who finds the strength to confront her greatest fear by relying on the comfort of strangers.
SYNOPSIS
A missed call from an unknown number spirals Sara into distress. She knows what the call is but can’t bring herself to return it. For a reason, her greatest fear would be confirmed as true if she did. She’s stuck in an airport due to her flight being delayed multiple times. Her inner world is crumbling. A projected unyielding panic overwhelms her as she tries to find a solution to get home. Can’t anybody help her? A small gesture from a woman who works for the airline takes Sara to a lounge where an unlikely stranger becomes the confessional she didn’t know she needed. SARA is an intimate short film about a woman who finds the strength to confront a cancer diagnosis by relying on the comfort of strangers.
Artistic Statement
Inspired by a moment in my life and personal health journey, SARA is a glimpse into a moment where I struggled to cope in a public place — the airport. My flight was delayed repeatedly. My Mom had just had a second stroke, I had had three surgeries by this point, and I would be having my fourth within a few months. My life was in limbo in every way. You know, when you wake up on a gorgeous balmy autumn morning, you snuggle with your dog and feel thankful that your career is taking flight but also for that long-awaited break. You’re excited to have not just a slow-moving morning but the day. You slow-sip that delicious coffee, feel the sun beaming in and decide it’s time to put your ass in the shower stat. The warm water feels terrific; you think perhaps it’s time to make that trip to Bali (Yass Queen, you deserve a vacay moment!), just as your hand glides over what is clearly a lump in your left breast. Shock. You feel again. It’s still there. The panic and total fear set in. You’re not a 1 in 8; you can’t be? Breast cancer doesn’t run in your family. The denial settles in, and you wait for eight months to make that appointment with your doctor. Once you do, a week later, you find yourself at a Cancer hospital being fast-tracked over the next three weeks to a diagnosis. This is my story; more importantly, it’s the story of many alike. When my flight was delayed again, my inner world came crashing down. I felt like I couldn't possibly handle one more thing. The irony of being grounded, yet I couldn't find the ground. I was burnt out. I thought I had more time, and now I felt the race against time and possibly my life. Then a stranger's unexpected kindness changed my perspective from hopeless to hopeful. Breast cancer, not to mention women’s health and wellness, no longer lives within a specific age paradigm. These statistics are both factual and personal.
The importance and urgency of telling this story ignites from wanting to curate a sense of empathy around the perception of emotional/mental wellness and the process of shame, grief, and trauma. This is where and how we experience a moment of SARA's life—trying to keep it all together because that is what SARA has had to do. But how her inner world comes crashing down in this very human, relatable moment. In an airport. Full of people from all walks of life. As a writer once said, 'Airports have become, for me, as churches used to be, places to contemplate the shortcomings of one's life and soul.’ As a storyteller, I think this story's universality is wanting to shift the lens from focusing solely on “the happening, the event” to investigating how trauma imprints itself on one's soul and the undeniable truth of the profound correlation between unresolved trauma and illness. To quote Dr. Bessel Van Der Kolk, M.D., “The Body Keeps Score.” As the world broke open with grief during the pandemic, people arrived at the realization that they were/are at capacity.
Yet, so many communities do not have the resources to fully understand the impacted feeling of loss of self, the mosaicked mind, the flashbacks, and the nightmares- to name a few. It’s important to me to continue the investigation of societal expectations and judgments around compassion for the imperfect human journey. Because unless we can truly stand in ourselves with pure love and wholeness, many of us are lost. At forty-five years old, recently diagnosed with Complex PTSD, I am just learning that grief and joy can co-exist alongside one another, as can trauma and the possibility of living a wonderfully full life. My intention is to provide hope and a realization to others that they are worthy and deserving of that too.
LOOKBOOK
Jessica Hinkson. Writer & Director
Jessica graduated from The Neighborhood Playhouse and worked closely with Terry Schreiber. A creator first and foremost, her multi-award-winning films have garnered international success along with landing on significant broadcasting networks and continue to thrive on multiple global streaming platforms. She received the 2021 Women in Film Screenplay Award from the Oscar-qualifying HollyShorts Film Festival, selected for Stowe Story Labs 10th Annual Lab. She has been on Coverfly!s Red List. She is in the early stages of development for her first feature with Stowe Story Labs Feature Campus. She is a proud member of the Academy of Canadian Cinema & Television.
Naiyelli Romero Agüero. Producer
Naiyelli Romero Agüero (she/her) is a Venezuelan-Canadian producer and production manager based in GTA. Her career began at the age of 4 when she joined the theatre troupe “Grupo de Teatro Colibrí” in Caracas, Venezuela. This experience led her to be featured in “¡Qué Locura!”, a comedy show by Venevisión, one of Venezuela's largest television networks, and various Telenovelas.
In 2018, Romero completed her BFA in Film Studies at Toronto Metropolitan University (formerly Ryerson University), where she received a variety of accolades for her work, including the Women in Film Award and the Norman Jewison Filmmaker Award. The following year, she received WIFT-T’s Media Business Essentials Certificate from Humber College. Likewise, Romero is an alumna of CMPA’s Digital Skills for Youth Mentorship Program and an active member of the Toronto chapter of WIFT.
Her most recent work includes production coordinating Historica Canada’s Heritage Minute: Chloe Cooley (2022) directed by Alison Duke, and associate producing Lauren Grant’s Things We Feel But Do Not Say (2021). She’s currently developing a docu-series focusing on black (cis & trans) women's relationship with their sexual expression, titled Rewriting Our Stories, with Director Yasmin Evering-Kerr. Outside of film, Romero has curated art shows, including the multinational exhibition Passport in London, UK. She is currently working as a Production Manager and Associate Producer for OYA Media Group on various projects, including Bam Bam: The Story of Sister Nancy and Black Community Mixtapes.
Ashleigh Rains. Producer
Ashleigh Rains is a Canadian Screen Award-winning producer and founder of C’mon Mort Productions. With more than a decade of film and television acting experience, Ashleigh brings her on-set knowledge behind the lens. Ashleigh produces features, shorts, and digital content. She recently completed production on the series, With a Twist, which she produced and wrote. Her projects have played festivals across Canada and the U.S., including VIFF, Whistler, Newport Beach, and Seattle. Her writing has placed in various competitions, including Inroads Fellowship, Los Angeles Screenplay Awards, Nashville Film Festival, and Stowe Story Labs. In 2020, Ashleigh was appointed Festival Director of the Canadian Film Fest, an annual festival showcasing the best in Canadian indie filmmaking. She is an alumna of Queen's University, Canada’s National Ballet School, RADA, NSI, Corus Media Management Accelerator and Stowe Story Labs.
Thea Gagliardi. Associate Producer
Thea is a Toronto-based, queer producer, most recently of the CBC sketch comedy series, TallBoyz. She has worked with Accent Entertainment, developing TV concepts with producers Susan Cavan and Bruce McCulloch. She also produced the short film, Mother Tongue, which premiered at the Blood in the Snow Film Festival in November 2022.
A graduate of Humber College’s Television Writing and Producing program, she began her career at Prodigy Pictures on the SyFy series, Dark Mater. Later she assisted the Vice President of Production at Brown Bag Films’ Toronto office, across such shows as Blue’s Clues & You, Magic School Bus: Rides Again, and Clifford the Big Red Dog.
Theo Dumont. Executive Producer
Dumont is the co-Founder/Co-Director of the Oscar-Qualifying HollyShorts Film Festival and Co-Founder of the Mammoth Film Festival. As Managing Partner at Alta Global Media, Dumont spearheads media relations, publicity and strategic marketing communications campaigns for entertainment industry clients. Prior to teaming up with Steven Adams to form Alta Global Media, Dumont was Head of Buffalo 8 Marketing. In 2012 , he founded Dumont Marketing Group (DMG), a company he led for seven years, working with production companies, filmmakers, independent films, comic book publishers, authors and digital entertainment companies. Prior to launching DMG, Dumont was with Miller PR, where he worked on strategy and counsel for the agency's premiere clients. Before joining Miller, he was Director of Corporate Communications at MGM Studios. Dumont studied Communications and received his B.A. from Florida International University in Miami, FL.
Daniel Sol. Executive Producer
With a passion for film and filmmaking since childhood, Daniel decided to move to California in 2000 with an interest in the film business. After working on commercial productions as a production assistant for Tony Kaye Films and then acting in various films, he gained an understanding of the filmmaking process.
After graduating from Cal State Northridge in 2006, he realized that young filmmakers had very little access to industry professionals and few options for screening their films. And thus, the HollyShorts Film Festival was born. Now in its 16th year and Academy Award Qualifying in 3 categories, HollyShorts has quickly become the most influential short film festival in the World, with Daniel guiding it as Festival Director and lead programmer and the HollyShorts Monthly Screening Series, which takes place each month at the TCL Chinese 6 Theatres.
Aside from HollyShorts, Sol also battled daily with domestic exhibitors as a theatrical sales executive at Lionsgate from 2008-2014. Mr. Sol is also the co-founder of the premium Roku, Amazon Fire TV, and Apple TV content channel Bitpix (www.bitpixtv.com) along with co-founder of the production company 88th Street (https://www.88thstreetproductions.net). He proudly serves on the Film Augusta Advisory Board. Sol is also an Executive Producer of the short film Thirst, airing on Hulu and is the Festival co-founder of the 6th annual Hollywood Comedy Shorts Film Festival.
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