This is Nowhere
This is Nowhere
Darcy is an idealistic fifteen-year-old, living on the edge of town in her family's motel where the justice system dumps its trash. The prostitutes, the addicts, the malcontents inside each room have their own stories and secrets and her fate is woven with theirs.
Darcy is an idealistic fifteen-year-old, living on the edge of town in her family's motel where the justice system dumps its trash. The prostitutes, the addicts, the malcontents inside each room have their own stories and secrets and her fate is woven with theirs.
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Wishlist
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$10 USD


A shout out on Facebook and Twitter
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$21 USD

A personalized video thank you from the THIS IS NOWHERE production team on Facebook and Twitter.
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$35 USD

Your very own #ThisIsNowhere personalized T-Shirt with catchy slogans and phrases from the film.
Claimed: 4 of 'Unlimited'
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$50 USD
A personally autographed copy of "Darcy" actress Gus Birney orginal sketch by lead actor Johnathan Tchaikovsky.Claimed: 0 of 50
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$60 USD

Personally Autographed Gus Birney CD - her music will be on the THIS IS NOWHERE film soundtrack!
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$75 USD

A digital download of the film.
Claimed: 5 of 'Unlimited'
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$100 USD

Budding actors will love this one: Work with Co-Directors Jon Russell Cring & Heidi Philipsen as she consults you on your acting monologue or scene.
Claimed: 3 of 25
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$150 USD
Your name under "Thank You" credits on our film!
Would you like to see your credits on the BIG SCREEN? This perk gets you in the "Thank You" section of THIS IS NOWHERE in the end credits. Your name... our gratitude... on THIS IS NOWHERE. Makes for a great birthday gift, don't you think?
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$175 USD
Lead Actor Johnathan Tchaikovsky ('Luke') will personally draw an artistic sketch of you and finish it off with his signature! Claimed: 0 of 3
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$250 USD

A private, VIP, invite-only, super confidential Audience Focus Screening, as we show the first cut of our film to our actors, producers, crew and supporters. (NY)
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$500 USD

VIP invite to the film's premier, which includes a group photo with the directors, producer, and cast, as well as a copy of the film.
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$7,500 USD
An "Associate Producer" credit.
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$20,000 USD
An "Executive Producer" credit, which entitles you to all other perks.
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Story
About The Project
As THIS IS NOWHERE'S producer and co-director, I feel extremely close to lead character, Darcy.

When I was a little girl, I remember watching a movie in the theatre about some super hero, who was always male, and thinking to myself, "Why can't I be a super hero, too? Oh, right, I'm a girl."
Even back then, at such a young age, I wanted to change the world around me and create a more even playing ground, where gender did not have anything to do with strength or great achievements. I dreamed to find somewhere less limiting and mundane than the world around me.
Always in love with acting, I fell into producing and directing by accident, or rather, necessity.
Don't get me wrong, I love great male-character-driven westerns, comedies, thrillers, action, adventure, science fiction and fantasy films -- but the actress and movie-goer in me misses the stories that display more gender equity across the board, from the story plot and characters, to the crew members making the films.
And so I set out to make the films I hoped to see and create opportunities for women and men who support gender equality in the film industry -- all the while, not sacrificing exeptional entertainment value.
For me, you don't have to make a good movie at some one else's expense. You DO, however, have to have three, key ingredients: 1.) A great story with great characters, 2.) that passes the Bechdel test and enables gender equality on the production team and, 3.) and is socially relevant in some way.
When I first read THIS IS NOWHERE, written by Jon Russell and Tracy Nicole Cring, I knew that this was a film that had to be made - its story was one equally balanced between hardship and hope, dreams and dispair, lust and longing... with a twist tagging along the line from exhilaration and fear.
The actor/storyteller in me LOVED the script. Here you had a strong and defiant, yet naive and idealistic teenage girl living amongst a slew of amazing characters -- each and every one of whom was facing a unique dilemma and challenge in life -- and she's presented with a choice that will effect not only her life, but the lives of the people around her. A dramatist's delight!

Further, THIS IS NOWHERE passes the Bechdel test -- It has at least two characters (Darcy and Frann) who talk to eachother about something other than another man -- and yet, it is also equally story-rich for its male characters, as well. It's story is universal and does not favor one gender over the other in its content or perspective.
THIS IS NOWHERE'S production team is gender blind. When you look at our above-the-line list of professionals on board, you'll see an even playing field for men and women: Even the directorial position is split (both Jon and I are directing).
Lastly, THIS IS NOWHERE is socially relevant.
I recently read an article in the Associated Press, just this past week, in fact, entitled, "In Disney's Shadow, Homeless Families Struggle," about the down-and-out people who live and work near Disney world, yet cannot afford a decent wage to pay for any form of housing other than the cheapest weekly motels.
These are people with dreams who, like you and me, do the best they can with the opportunities they've been given (or not given), choices they've made (or didn't) and hope to make enough to feed their kids.
Co-Writer/Director Jon Russell Cring once told me that he loves to focus on the characters that society would rather not see and bring their stories to light.
THIS IS NOWHERE does just that -- and yet, it does not preach. It simply allows you to enter Darcy's world and see for your self.

I am convinced and determined that this fim, THIS IS NOWHERE, will be made. Having worked on up to 26 feature films, from precision driver to production coordinator, prior to producing THIS IS NOWHERE, I feel I have a pretty good grasp on the nuts and bolts of bringing a film like this to life and know a good story worth producing, when I see it. So many of my professional colleagues have joined me in the journey to make it happen, as they believe in and are as passionate about its story and characters as I am.
But we need you, our audience and supporters, to join us on our journey in taking THIS IS NOWHERE from print to production to a screen near you.
Incentives
Select This Incentive
$10 USD


A shout out on Facebook and Twitter
Claimed: 10 of 'Unlimited'
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$21 USD

A personalized video thank you from the THIS IS NOWHERE production team on Facebook and Twitter.
Claimed: 10 of 'Unlimited'
Select This Incentive
$35 USD

Your very own #ThisIsNowhere personalized T-Shirt with catchy slogans and phrases from the film.
Claimed: 4 of 'Unlimited'
Select This Incentive
$50 USD
A personally autographed copy of "Darcy" actress Gus Birney orginal sketch by lead actor Johnathan Tchaikovsky.Claimed: 0 of 50
Select This Incentive
$60 USD

Personally Autographed Gus Birney CD - her music will be on the THIS IS NOWHERE film soundtrack!
Claimed: 0 of 15
Select This Incentive
$75 USD

A digital download of the film.
Claimed: 5 of 'Unlimited'
Select This Incentive
$100 USD

Budding actors will love this one: Work with Co-Directors Jon Russell Cring & Heidi Philipsen as she consults you on your acting monologue or scene.
Claimed: 3 of 25
Select This Incentive
$150 USD
Your name under "Thank You" credits on our film!
Would you like to see your credits on the BIG SCREEN? This perk gets you in the "Thank You" section of THIS IS NOWHERE in the end credits. Your name... our gratitude... on THIS IS NOWHERE. Makes for a great birthday gift, don't you think?
Claimed: 0 of 50
Select This Incentive
$175 USD
Lead Actor Johnathan Tchaikovsky ('Luke') will personally draw an artistic sketch of you and finish it off with his signature! Claimed: 0 of 3
Select This Incentive
$250 USD

A private, VIP, invite-only, super confidential Audience Focus Screening, as we show the first cut of our film to our actors, producers, crew and supporters. (NY)
Claimed: 0 of 'Unlimited'
Select This Incentive
$500 USD

VIP invite to the film's premier, which includes a group photo with the directors, producer, and cast, as well as a copy of the film.
Claimed: 0 of 'Unlimited'
Select This Incentive
$7,500 USD
An "Associate Producer" credit.
Claimed: 0 of 3
Select This Incentive
$20,000 USD
An "Executive Producer" credit, which entitles you to all other perks.
Claimed: 0 of 3
- Updates
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Current Team
About This Team
The THIS IS NOWHERE production team:
Executive Producer/Consult Kathryn J. McDermott has worked in feature film production for more than 27 years. From 1995 to 2005, Kathryn held the position of Vice President of Production at Columbia Pictures. McDermott’s credits include Charlies’ Angels 1 & 2, Memoirs of a Geisha, Fun with Dick & Jane, Closer, Hitch, and Spiderman 1 & 2, just to name a few. Prior to that, Kathryn worked in as Production Manager on Striking Distance (starring Bruce Willis), Assistant Producer on Last of the Mohicans, A League of Their Own, Only the Lonely, Career Opportunities, and was an Associate Producer for First Knight (starring Richard Gere and Sean Connery) and My Life (starring Nicole Kidman and Michael Keaton).Kathryn J. McDermott is currently a Career Placement Advisor at the Motion Picture Institute of Michigan and teaches Production Management 1 and 2.
Producer/Co-Director/Principle Actress Heidi Elizabeth Philipsen-Meissner is a dedicated, union-affiliated (Screen Actors Guild/American Federation of Television and Radio Artists/Actors Equity Association) actor, writer, director and producer whose background in film and theater spans over a decade and across the ocean from the United States to Germany and covers 15 short- and 26 feature-length films, independent and studio.Heidi holds a B.A. in Film, Theatre & German Literature from the University of Michigan's Residential College, a Certificate in German Fluency from the Goethe Institute, a Masters in International Media & Communications with a Regional Focus on the European Union from Columbia University's School of International & Public Affairs, and a Graduate Training Certificate in Directing and Cinematography from the Motion Picture Institute of Michigan. She has interned for German film director Wim Wender’s film production company, Road Movies GmBh, ABC Good Morning America, CBS 48 Hours and was selected by both Women in Film Chicago and New York Women in Film & Television for their Intern/Mentorship Program (Chicago mentor: 2008 Producer/Director Melissa Costello).
Heidi has served on several boards, including Upstate Independents and the Electricity Arts and Entertainment Board of Schenectady from 2010 to 2013.
She is the Founder/President of UPWIFT, Upstate NY Women in Film & Television, a project under New York Women in Film and Television, for women professionals in the industry living and working in upstate New York.
In 2012, thought accepted into the UCLA’s School of Film & Television’s Professional Producers’ Program for the summer, Heidi made a gutt-decision work as a production coordinator on a series of features that paid-off. She's since amassed nearly eleven back-to-back feature films including seven German-American international co-production, made-for-ZDF-TV feature films and three independent features, one of which, THE BETTER ANGELS, made it to Sundance and the Berlin International Film Festival in 2014.
Acting-wise, her most recent credits consist of principle roles in the following feature films: MARCY, HOBO HEYSEUS (directed by Jon Russell Cring), THIRSTY, BEHIND THE MIRROR, and BUSINESS& PLEASURE. She's also worked as a precision-driver (with professional stunts departments) on SALT, THE OTHER GUYS, TOWER HEIST, and PREMIUM RUSH, to name a few.
As a director, she has brought stories to life both for stage and film, taking on such works as William Mastrosimone’s “Extremities” and Anne Nelson’s “The Guys,” through her socially motivated theater ensemble, “The Personae Ensemble,” as well as creating her own, such as “Tales from Motherville,” an official selection of 2007’s BoxFest, an annual theatre festival in Michigan showcasing local female artists. On the film front, her thesis short “A FORK IN THE ROAD” for which she received “Best Screenplay” and was nominate for “Best Director” at the MPI Student Film Festival, went on to screen in several other film fests across the nation (Reel Women International, Electric City, and New York Shorts film festivals).
HER TELLING HEART, successfully fiscally sponsored by NYWIFT in 2009, represented her first period-piece thriller adaptation and fourth short film. It went on to win Park City Film Music Film Festival’s “Best Performance & Experimental” in 2012, “Best Sound” in the ReachOut film festival in Kingston, NY in 2013, and was an official short within NYWIFT’s Summer Shorts Screening Series in 2012. THIS IS NOWHERE marks her second feature film as producer and first as co-director.
Co-Writer/ Co-Director Jon Russell CringBorn in Columbus, Ohio in 1971 to creative powerhouse parents, Jon grew up around the arts. Traveling and performing with his family, presenting music and drama on stages criss-crossing the USA. There was nothing abstract about entertainment. It was a business to enthrall and he would get on the phone to book their travelling gypsy show as young as fourteen.His interest in film, besides rabid fandom, began when he met his future wife and muse Tracy Nichole. Writing a variety show together, STREETWALKING, Tracy started editing and contributing her own unique and sometimes demented ideas. An unstoppable team was born.
Jon and Tracy spent a resident time in the wilderness of Indy Horror Filmmaking with a collaborator before making their first short film, HANK’S PLACE, which was immediately accepted into regional film fests (Southern Appalachian film fest 2006).After completing a string of fifteen experimental short films, Jon decided to do the same with feature-length films and the idea for the ExtraOrdinary Film Project was born. Can we make 12 feature length films in 12 months?
In 2007, traveling across the country from Nashville, Tennessee to San Francisco, California, Jon pumped out one feature film after the other, practicing his own hands-on film school, in every genre from a Rock Musical, FOUR ON THE FLOOR, to a Psycho Thriller, LENDERS MORGAN, and even a kids’ movie starring puppets, TOO. Many films from the ExtraOrdinary Film Project appeared in film festivals: Top Ten Films in America, "Bernee," "FOUR ON THE FLOOR," (Best Screenplay and Actress) Washougal Fest; Best Feature in the Michigan Film Fest for "WONDERFUL"
In 2010, the couple moved to upstate New York. "I found fertile ground for my renegade style of filmmaking there," says Jon.Since then, upstate New York has been the backdrop for three more features, and PBS honored his work twice, as has Fangoria Magazine for his film "Creeping Crawling, An Entomological Anthology of Terror.”Further, most recently, Jon and Tracy’s LGBT feature, LITTLE BI PEEP, was decorated with the honors Best Actress and Supporting Actress, Best Comedy, and Best Director at the 2013 Atlantic City Cinefest.In the meantime, seemingly unable or willing to put their pens down, Jon began writing scripts with Tracy, accumulating ten in the past three years, and have sold three, thus far.
Jon's soon to be released project HOBO HEYSEUS, featuring THIS IS NOWHERE producer/actress Heidi Philipsen, and co-written with authors Joshua Owens and wife Tracy Nichole, brought on a new collaborator: Tony Award-winning Nathaniel Kramer as their Cinematographer.
THIS IS NOWHERE marks Heidi Philipsen and Jon's first joint project and a step for Jon toward focusing and perfect his very own, distinct version of the great 1970’s auteur director’s style.
Co-Writer/Director of Photography Tracy Nichole Cring grew up in a small town in Tennessee. Surrounded by industrious and self-taught artisans, she was inspired to follow her own path and fell in love with film. By seventeen she had taught herself to use cameras, edit, and she won her first film festival (Los Angeles Film Fest 1997) for which she received the grand prize of the latest, new filmmaking gear.After moving to Nashville at the dawn of the new millennium, she met Jon Russell Cring and put to use her festival winnings co-writing, shooting, and editing a TV Series together.
“The ExtraOrdinary Film Project” was born – an attempt to make twelve Feature Films in twelve months. Though it took twenty months to complete all twelve features, shot on such locations as Bugscuffle, TN, Phoenix, AZ, San Fransisco, CA, and Flint, MI, Tracy was cinematographer for all twelve films. In addition, she also co-directed "Budd" (film #12), appearing in the Route 66 Film Festival, Southern Appalachian Film Festival, and Memphis Film Festival in 2008.
In 2009, Tracy moved to Albany, New York with the aim of slowing the production pace and taking time to study and hone her craft. Her last three films, AND SEE ALL THE PEOPLE, CREEPING CRAWLING, and LITTLE BI PEEP, currently touring the film festival circuit, have been winning awards ( New Orleans fest, Atlanta Horror,Atlantic City Cinefest (4 awards)and have distribution offers.
A natural at writing unique scenes that speak to her audience, Tracy has also taken on writing feature screenplays with partner Jon Russell Cring to great success, having optioned many to other producers.
Co-Producer Niko Meissner loves the business development, budgets and contracts and isn't afraid of the bottom financial line. He holds his MBA/MS in Renewable Energy and Sustainable Enterprise from the University of Michigan's Ross School of Business and has extensive experience in business development.Formerly a writer/producer/director of his own short films, THIS IS NOWHERE marks his first feature.
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