Hysterical
Bridgeport, Connecticut | Film Feature
Experimental
Hysterical follows a girl-woman as she scours her mind-farm for her missing uterus. It offers much needed insight into the process of following one's roots past the heart of their trauma into the seat of their soul.
Hysterical
Bridgeport, Connecticut | Film Feature
Experimental
1 Campaigns | Connecticut, United States
Green Light
This campaign raised $5,565 for post-production. Follow the filmmaker to receive future updates on this project.
55 supporters | followers
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Hysterical follows a girl-woman as she scours her mind-farm for her missing uterus. It offers much needed insight into the process of following one's roots past the heart of their trauma into the seat of their soul.
About The Project
- The Story
- Wishlist
- Updates
- The Team
- Community
Mission Statement
The Story
Have YOU ever wondered what’s it like to be a potato?
Background:
Hysterical is a film-adaptation of a one-woman theatre performance. The stem-level plot is this: a girl-woman lost her uterus and sorts through her mind-farm-memories to find it. On a deeper level, the show explores intergenerational womanhood and inherited trauma. It weaves together themes of independence, institutionalized mental health, the female body and its policing, fertility, immigration, and growth to present to you, the audience, an unintentional coming-of-age tale for and of us all, just trying to do the best we can with what we have.
back when this was only a brainstorm ...
The ~adaptation~
Originally, Hysterical was written for live-theatre. And then COVID. Yet, like running water down a mountainside, we flowed with what life presented us. You see, the thing about a project like this is: once the water breaks, breaching is imminent. Less metaphorically, once Emma had a clear vision for depicting this, she couldn’t sit back and wait while theaters, her show, and her passion for them decayed. Sometimes you’re just soul-constipated and need to evacuate immediately because life is waiting! Writer and Performer Emma Speer found the phenomenal Mia Fowler to direct and the legendary Citrus Duff to take charge of production. Despite the unanticipated rerouting, the adaptation is not compromised at all. In fact, for the creators, the film version has supplanted the original as the story’s purest expression.
Link: original performance, self-filmed for pitch to Cyrus and Mia, clearly help was needed lolz
What still needs to be done:
Thus bringing us to this fundraiser. The film grew in its filmy-ness during this process, and with that grew the associated expenditures. The filming process was entirely funded from personal funds, proudly used to employ and promote art and small businesses.
In search of 1. crates and 2. a logo
Remaining expenses include: 1. editing fees, 2. sound mixing, 3. coloring, 4. musical score, 5. festival application fees. These costs total $5,200. We come to you, our loved ones, audiences, and kindred spirits in the arts, to help us complete Hysterical with the integrity and care it has had so far.
Thank you for helping this (and us!) grow!
Wishlist
Use the WishList to Pledge cash and Loan items - or - Make a pledge by selecting an Incentive directly.
Editor's fee
Costs $2,700
We have assembled so much beautiful footage; now we just need to weave them together!
Sound Mixer Fee
Costs $1,500
We're working with a skilled sound mixer who is willing to work at a steep discount.
Film Festival Submissions
Costs $1,200
We need to get into festivals to reach a wide audience, and this means paying submission fees.
Cash Pledge
Costs $0
Direct link:
Share this update!
About This Team
Emma Speer (she/her/hers) is a born-and-bred Bridgeport, CT spiritual spelunker. She finds meaning in assisting others with their own deep explorations, through conventionally artistic endeavors such as performing, writing, illustrating, painting, podcasting, and DJing as well as in interactions with her students, mentees, friends, family, and more. You can catch her sitting on her floor surrounded by paints and pallets or cooking up way too much food for people she loves and not, though she probably should, working on her website or instagram.
Mia Weathers-Fowler (she/her/hers) is an actor, director, and writer based in New York. Mia has spent the past three years focused on new play development—directing five premieres and performing in three. In 2020 she and her co-writer Seth Herschkowitz won the Yale Playwright's Festival for their one-act play Terminal 3. With the constraints of the pandemic, Mia has turned her attention to film, directing her first feature Hysterical in October. Outside of her artistic pursuits, Mia moonlights as a medieval scholar (anything before 1600 will do).
Cyrus Duff (he/him/his) is a cinematographer and director. With Edward Columbia, he runs Sulde Productions, which produces commercial content for a variety of clients as well as narrative and documentary shorts. His short film Without Wax began its festival circuit at the 2020 RIIFF. In the past year, among other projects, he directed a documentary on the trendy New York fashion startup Café Forgot, now in post-production. He also served as cinematographer on a new narrative feature film by director Jimmy Bontatibus, is in prep as cinematographer on the second documentary feature by Hayley Garrigus, and has shot a number of ads, shorts and music videos. You can see more of his work at his website.
Current Team
Incentives
- The Story
- Wishlist
- Updates
- The Team
- Community
Mission Statement
The Story
Have YOU ever wondered what’s it like to be a potato?
Background:
Hysterical is a film-adaptation of a one-woman theatre performance. The stem-level plot is this: a girl-woman lost her uterus and sorts through her mind-farm-memories to find it. On a deeper level, the show explores intergenerational womanhood and inherited trauma. It weaves together themes of independence, institutionalized mental health, the female body and its policing, fertility, immigration, and growth to present to you, the audience, an unintentional coming-of-age tale for and of us all, just trying to do the best we can with what we have.
back when this was only a brainstorm ...
The ~adaptation~
Originally, Hysterical was written for live-theatre. And then COVID. Yet, like running water down a mountainside, we flowed with what life presented us. You see, the thing about a project like this is: once the water breaks, breaching is imminent. Less metaphorically, once Emma had a clear vision for depicting this, she couldn’t sit back and wait while theaters, her show, and her passion for them decayed. Sometimes you’re just soul-constipated and need to evacuate immediately because life is waiting! Writer and Performer Emma Speer found the phenomenal Mia Fowler to direct and the legendary Citrus Duff to take charge of production. Despite the unanticipated rerouting, the adaptation is not compromised at all. In fact, for the creators, the film version has supplanted the original as the story’s purest expression.
Link: original performance, self-filmed for pitch to Cyrus and Mia, clearly help was needed lolz
What still needs to be done:
Thus bringing us to this fundraiser. The film grew in its filmy-ness during this process, and with that grew the associated expenditures. The filming process was entirely funded from personal funds, proudly used to employ and promote art and small businesses.
In search of 1. crates and 2. a logo
Remaining expenses include: 1. editing fees, 2. sound mixing, 3. coloring, 4. musical score, 5. festival application fees. These costs total $5,200. We come to you, our loved ones, audiences, and kindred spirits in the arts, to help us complete Hysterical with the integrity and care it has had so far.
Thank you for helping this (and us!) grow!
Wishlist
Use the WishList to Pledge cash and Loan items - or - Make a pledge by selecting an Incentive directly.
Editor's fee
Costs $2,700
We have assembled so much beautiful footage; now we just need to weave them together!
Sound Mixer Fee
Costs $1,500
We're working with a skilled sound mixer who is willing to work at a steep discount.
Film Festival Submissions
Costs $1,200
We need to get into festivals to reach a wide audience, and this means paying submission fees.
Cash Pledge
Costs $0
Direct link:
Share this update!
About This Team
Emma Speer (she/her/hers) is a born-and-bred Bridgeport, CT spiritual spelunker. She finds meaning in assisting others with their own deep explorations, through conventionally artistic endeavors such as performing, writing, illustrating, painting, podcasting, and DJing as well as in interactions with her students, mentees, friends, family, and more. You can catch her sitting on her floor surrounded by paints and pallets or cooking up way too much food for people she loves and not, though she probably should, working on her website or instagram.
Mia Weathers-Fowler (she/her/hers) is an actor, director, and writer based in New York. Mia has spent the past three years focused on new play development—directing five premieres and performing in three. In 2020 she and her co-writer Seth Herschkowitz won the Yale Playwright's Festival for their one-act play Terminal 3. With the constraints of the pandemic, Mia has turned her attention to film, directing her first feature Hysterical in October. Outside of her artistic pursuits, Mia moonlights as a medieval scholar (anything before 1600 will do).
Cyrus Duff (he/him/his) is a cinematographer and director. With Edward Columbia, he runs Sulde Productions, which produces commercial content for a variety of clients as well as narrative and documentary shorts. His short film Without Wax began its festival circuit at the 2020 RIIFF. In the past year, among other projects, he directed a documentary on the trendy New York fashion startup Café Forgot, now in post-production. He also served as cinematographer on a new narrative feature film by director Jimmy Bontatibus, is in prep as cinematographer on the second documentary feature by Hayley Garrigus, and has shot a number of ads, shorts and music videos. You can see more of his work at his website.