The Ring Thing
by Sarah Wharton

Sarah Wharton
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The Ring Thing
by Sarah Wharton
Sarah Wharton
Follow
When Sarah accidentally proposes to Kristen, their conflicting dreams about their future together rise to the surface, sending both women on separate paths of marital exploration. and self-discovery. Will their journies bring them closer together or further apart?
When Sarah accidentally proposes to Kristen, their conflicting dreams about their future together rise to the surface, sending both women on separate paths of marital exploration. and self-discovery. Will their journies bring them closer together or further apart?
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Story
Inclusion Statement
Our story centers around two lesbian women and features documentary interviews with LGBTQ+ couples and individuals from all over the country and a wide variety of ethnic backgrounds. Our cast and creative team proudly represent people of color, the LGTBQ+ community, and gender parity.About The Project
It’s 2017. Same-sex marriage is the law of the land... for now. And Sarah wants nothing to do with it. For her, marriage is assimilation, marriage is an outdated institution, marriage is the thing everyone else in her family has failed at. Sarah couldn’t be happier in her relationship with her girlfriend, Kristen. So why would she want to ruin it by getting married?
The problem is... Kristen has always wanted to get married. For her, marriage is the ultimate commitment to a partnership, marriage is a hard-fought right, marriage comes with so many benefits, both symbolic and practical - who wouldn’t want to take part in that?
And then the unexpected happens. Sarah finds her estranged father’s wedding ring in a forgotten box at her mother’s house, and somehow accidentally proposes to Kristen. This miscommunication sparks a conversation about marriage she could had never have anticipated. What is marriage, anyway? When does it work? Why does it fail? Does it mean something different if you’re gay, lesbian - queer? Why is Sarah so hung-up on the idea?
Determined to find answers, Sarah embarks on making a documentary film about same-sex marriage. She interviews young people, old people, men, women, the happily married, the not-so-happily married, and the people who decided they were better off not-married. As Sarah explores the most intimate details of other people’s relationships, she is thrust into questioning her own - if she and Kristen did get married, then what?
Fast forward three years into the future and Sarah and Kristen are happily married. Then Kristen loses her job. As the one who shoulders most of the financial responsibilities of the relationship, Kristen always felt obligated to work long hours at a job she didn’t particularly like. With new freedom forced upon her, she spirals into an identity crisis, ultimately resurfacing having made the decision to pursue what she really loves - being a chef.
Kristen fully submerges herself in the opportunity to work at an up-and-coming restaurant. She is finally fulfilled at work, happy, and ecstatically exhausted at the end of every day. But her new schedule and long nights in the kitchen take her away from her relationship. She and Sarah rarely see each other anymore. When Kristen gets offered a position as head chef in a restaurant across the country, she suddenly feels like she is put in the position of choosing between her dream job and her marriage. Sarah and Kristen are both growing, but in different directions. What happens to a marriage when the partnership gets in the way of each individual’s own happiness?
As we interweave these two stories together, intercut with documentary interviews with real-life couples and individuals, we begin to see the threads of what makes a relationship, a marriage, come together or fall apart. As Sarah and Kristen each confront their relationship, they ultimately must confront themselves, choosing whether or not they have the courage to take a leap of faith into the unknown, with or without each other.
As gay filmmakers, we are dedicated to exploring our truth on camera. By starting with a story that is incredibly personal to us, as both the writers and as a couple, and then by expanding the theme of that story outward through interviews with real LGBTQ couples, we hope to create a film that will feel true to our audience. We want to ask big questions about relationships and same-sex marriage without presenting any concrete answers. We are interested in capturing the complex intricacies of what we know and what we don’t know.
As with our previous film, That’s Not Us (a Seed&Spark alum), the dialogue in The Ring Thing is improvised. Working from a structured story outline, we gave the actors the freedom to find their own words within the scene. The ultra-naturalism of the improv lends itself to finding raw truth on screen, complimenting the tone of the documentary footage throughout the film and blurring the line between script and reality.
The documentary interviews serve as transition points between our present and future stories, propelling our characters back and forth in time. This non-linear structure brings us into Sarah and Kristen's states of mind - they are trying to figure something out, piecing together the framework of marriage while piecing together herself. Through these shifts in time, we hope to create uncertainty in our storytelling, just as Sarah and Kristen face uncertainty about her relationship.
Our hope is to draw the audience into Sarah and Kristen's decision-making process, allowing them to draw their own conclusions and spark a conversation that continues off-screen. If this film is a puzzle, we want the audience to be instrumental in putting the pieces together.
Incentives
$10
Share The Love
A social-media thank-you card from our team!
$25
Digital Copy of The Film + Social Media Thank You Card
You own us and we love you for it!
$50
Love Letter
A handwritten thank-you from the cast or crew member of your choice!
$75
Acting Lessons with Cynthia or Dance Lessons with Matt
Your choice of creative instruction! Take an acting lesson with actor, director and our AD, Cynthia Vasquez, or let actor and award-winning dancer Matt Connolly show you how to Irish Dance! One hour each.
Must be local to NYC (Cynthia) or LA (Matt) or willing to Skype!
Claimed: 1 of 5
$100
Audition Coaching With Will
Coaching for your next audition with our director extraordinaire, Will Sullivan!
Must be local to NYC or willing to Skype!
Claimed: 2 of 5
$150
Producer Confab
A one-hour producing consultation with producers Sarah Wharton or Jess Weiss.
Must be local to NYC or willing to Skype!
Claimed: 0 of 5
$250
Wined & Dined
Dinner with our creative team!
*NYC travel and accommodations not included.
Claimed: 2 of 3
$500
VIP
Tickets to a screening of The Ring Thing near you and the red carpet, VIP treatment.
*Travel and accommodations not included.
Claimed: 0 of 2
$1,000
Associate Producer
Your name is going to look so good on IMDB.
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Wishlist
Use the WishList to pledge cash and loan items - or - Make a pledge by selecting an incentive directly.
$10
Share The Love
A social-media thank-you card from our team!
$25
Digital Copy of The Film + Social Media Thank You Card
You own us and we love you for it!
$50
Love Letter
A handwritten thank-you from the cast or crew member of your choice!
$75
Acting Lessons with Cynthia or Dance Lessons with Matt
Your choice of creative instruction! Take an acting lesson with actor, director and our AD, Cynthia Vasquez, or let actor and award-winning dancer Matt Connolly show you how to Irish Dance! One hour each.
Must be local to NYC (Cynthia) or LA (Matt) or willing to Skype!
Claimed: 1 of 5
$100
Audition Coaching With Will
Coaching for your next audition with our director extraordinaire, Will Sullivan!
Must be local to NYC or willing to Skype!
Claimed: 2 of 5
$150
Producer Confab
A one-hour producing consultation with producers Sarah Wharton or Jess Weiss.
Must be local to NYC or willing to Skype!
Claimed: 0 of 5
$250
Wined & Dined
Dinner with our creative team!
*NYC travel and accommodations not included.
Claimed: 2 of 3
$500
VIP
Tickets to a screening of The Ring Thing near you and the red carpet, VIP treatment.
*Travel and accommodations not included.
Claimed: 0 of 2
$1,000
Associate Producer
Your name is going to look so good on IMDB.
- Updates
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Current Team
About This Team
Will Sullivan (Writer, Director)
A graduate of NYU, William is one of the only students in the school’s history to graduate with a double BFA in Film Production and Drama. Most recent features include PERCIVAL'S BIG NIGHT, THAT'S NOT US and JANE WANTS A BOYFRIEND. JANE was acquired by FilmBuff for a 10-city theatrical release in 2016, recently won the Best Actress and Best Ensemble Awards from the Napa Valley Film Festival. THAT'S NOT US was released as a Netflix Exclusive by Stand Releasing, and played over 35 film festivals in 2015.
Derek Dodge (Writer, Cinematographer)
Derek Dodge is a director, producer and cinematographer. He creates multi-platform content for celebrities like Patrick Dempsey and Katie Couric, and major TV networks like CNN and the Discovery Channel. He is a former CNN producer and Travel Channel video journalist. He earned a degree in Cinematography at the School of Visual Arts in New York City.
Sarah Wharton (Producer, Actor)
Sarah is an award-winning producer and actor based in New York City. Her feature "That’s Not Us" played at over 35 festivals around the world and was released as a Netflix exclusive through Strand Releasing. She currently works in development with The Spangler Group - a film, television and theater production company currently developing "Happy Trails", a Broadway-bound musical written by Tony and Oscar-winner, Marshall Brickman (Jersey Boys) and composed by Oscar-winner, T. Bone Burnett ("Crazy Heart"). She is currently in pre-production for "Bite Me", a subversive romantic comedy about a real-life vampire and the IRS agent who audits her with Executive Producer Jack Lechner ("Blue Valentine”).
Jess Weiss (Producer)
Jess Weiss is a New York-based producer, with over thirty short films and fifteen features under her belt. Her movies have been selected for international festivals worldwide, more recently in the Festival de Cannes and Camerimage. She has worked alongside Jim Jarmusch, Patrick Stewart, Christine Vachon, James Schamus, and Daniel Radcliffe, among others. Her short film TAINTED IN RED was picked up for distribution by Gonella Productions and IndieFlix. She was an associate producer on the feature KNUCKLEHEAD, starring Academy Award nominee Alfre Woodard, which was the opening night film at the New Voices in Black Cinema. She was also an associate producer in the feature LET ME MAKE YOU A MATYR, starring Mark Boone Jr. and Marilyn Manson. Upcoming projects include WE GO TOGETHER!, a Brazilian feature film, on which she was an executive producer.
Nicole Pursell (Actor, Production Designer)
Nicole is an actor, production designer, writer and graduate of NYU's Experimental Theater Wing. She has worked with many multifaceted artists in her adult life from Tony and Oscar winners to post-modern dance groups to farmers in the mountains of France. Her most recent feature, That's Not Us, played at festivals all over the world and was released by Strand Releasing as a Netflix exclusive. She currently lives in Brooklyn, NY. www.nicolepursell.com
Matt Connolly (Actor, Additional Camera)
Matt Connolly was born in Massachusetts and currently resides in Los Angeles. He graduated from Tisch School of the Arts at New York University with a degree in Drama in 2010. Matt now dances with the Cleary School of Irish Dance in Burbank. Matt placed 1st in the Adult competition at the Western US Region Oireachtas in 2016. He has performed with the Harney Academy of Performing Arts, Theater Reconstruction Ensemble, Simone Forti, John Kelly, James Franco, and at the San Diego International Fringe. You can watch Matt dance in an episode of Fuller House Season 2.
Cheryl Pickett (Actor)
Cheryl is an NYC-based film and theater actor. Most recent credits include Those Who Wander and Hudson Shakespeare Theater's Edward III.
Cynthia Vasquez (1st AD)
Cynthia is an Actor, Director, Producer, and Arts Administrator. Born & raised in NYC, Cynthia's heart lies in non-profits and self-funded theater, which allow her to wear any of her talented hats. Her new hat as Assistant Director for the Indie Feature The Ring Thing inspired her to pursue more film. Cynthia was recently in front of the camera for Sweater Cows, a new Pilot! BFA in Theater from NYU.
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