White Death
by Garth Donovan

Garth Donovan
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Sharks, movies, dreams, what else is there?
Participating In

Hometown Heroes 2017
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Story
Mission Statement
This film is being made by a group of real blue-collar workers expressing their honest fears about the limitations and glass ceiling of a life in construction. Much like the characters the creators are dreaming of a reality outside of their day to day grind, wondering if it will ever come to be.About The Project
STRETCH GOAL ANNOUNCED ! PLEASE HELP US REACH $15,000 and make this film in a fashion we only dreamed of ! We reached our first funding goal quickly and now have the chance to raise more money which would allow us more time filming on the water, post production help + more.
Side by side with my obsession of all things film, I share an infatuation with all things sharks. It's not too hard to imagine where this came from being a child of the seventies. Oh Mr. Spielberg. A few years ago I decided to combine these passions.
Due to the growing seal population, the great whites started coming to the very waters that Hollywood immortalized them in some thirty years prior. So I began making a documentary about this reality and the apex predators on Cape Cod. It was intense to say the least. I tracked the giant fish down and got in a cage with them holding my go-pro by a shaky thread. While I was working on this adventure, I was struck with some unfortunate news...my father passed.
This isn't that moment on American Idol where heartstring music is cued and gunned at your emotions. No, it's real and his passing was sudden, hitting me like a freight train. The documentary production stopped as did the world I as I knew it...I remember though while I was working on the film, I fantasized about showing the completed version to my father and blowing him away...winning his praise over tenfold...growing up in an Irish Catholic home, kind words weren't exactly commonplace...but my parents were great and this is by no means a judgement of them. I was and am beyond lucky and thankful for all they did for me...
In time I began feeling the creative urge again. I channeled my father's passing into a narrative screenplay. The devised storyline and characters were pretty close to home, allowing a real outlet for this bottled pain. The basic story follows blue collar construction worker Brian Sullivan who has never done anything but slander the family name, quarrel with his straight laced brother and disappoint his impossible to please father. The family construction business just won't cut it for the young buck who fancies himself a filmmaker. Yet his magnum opus, a documentary in progress about great white sharks, is a disaster. When his old man is given 6 months to live Brian will stop at nothing for one last chance at redemption; engaging a reckless pursuit of the most feared apex predator as well handling some old unhealed personal wounds.
The Carcharodon carcharias or great white is also known as white death. Yet in regards to my humble film that title represents more. It literally encapsulates the plaster and paint that the main character is covered in day after day and spends countless hours scrubbing off his worn hands. Yet this physical frustration pales in comparison to the psychlogical undertow the 35 year old has been caught in. Here, the title alludes to the depression and complacency brought about by a monotonus, unfulfilled existence. In some sense it's like almost like a slightly premature mid-life crisis (think Bill Murray, orange camo and a treadmill).
This type of existence is dangerous and exhausting - searching for that approval. Perhaps my father wasn't the best at expressing emotions, perhaps I'm flawed myself as well. Perhaps. God damn right I am. End of the day, we're all just humans. What I'm trying to get at is, I didn't need to win my father's approval through the silver screen, I already had it. And deep down inside I knew that.
This film speaks to that delicate and detrimental place...a place common to many...we build these high walls and shroud ourselves in technology, yet at the end of the day we can break in a heartbeat if that reaction is not what we expected or needed...
Incentives
$10
Guppy
On-line shout out from the White Death team.
$25
Credit and a thank you!
Get your name in the thank you section of the credits of the finished film and shout out from the shark boys.
$50
MOBY DICK PASSAGE NARRATED BY BRIAN
Have you ever wanted to hear the wistful prose of Herman Melville's timeless classic read to you by a "good ole' boy" from Needham? Well now's your chance. Lead Actor Brian Hasenfus will record and send you your own personalized passage while chain smoking and doing other things we probably shouldn't list(seed n spark might drop us).
$100
the solid homie option - VIP ticket to local premiere screening
Get a ticket to the already sold out Madison Square Garden release of White Death with Jay Z doing the intermission. Not exactly, but we will show it somewhere here in suburbs! One of the many great arthouses and you'll be top dog!
$250
Gutters cleaned out for Fall!
WE DON'T WANT TO READ ABOUT YOU IN THE PAPER! ... or hear you say - "I've fallen and I can't get up!"
Get your gutters cleaned out by the Donovan Painting crew and help us make our film. You need it done anyways...Witness the phenomenon firsthand, you will never be the same!
Please note - MUST BE WITHIN A 20 MILE RADIUS OF NEEDHAM MA.
$250
Solid homie on juice
Don't worry you won't be tested. Get your name in our credits as a key supporter. And a grand VIP ticket to the local premiere screening. PS - We won't club you like some homies do.
$250
Bathroom Ceiling REDUX
Everybody has a peeling ceiling in their bathroom right ? Mildew? Time for a make-over!
20 mile Radius of Needham ma. Get your ceiling done plus all trim a fresh coat.
$350
Powerwash your home or deck or whatever!
We will come and powerwash whatever you need washed. A deck, your entire home - MANSIONS NOT INCLUDED! Ernie Boch need not apply. But seriously for those in Massachusetts(only), we'll come make sure everything looks sparkly and clean again! Give this as a gift to someone you know needs it!
Please note - MUST BE WITHIN A 30 MILE RADIUS OF NEEDHAM MA.
$1,000
Producer credit - you too can be STEVEN! & Come on a shark trip!!!
For a g you'll become part of the team, an official credited producer. ALSO come and join the crew on our shark adventure as we actually film the Masterpiece - witness movie magic that would make Spielberg jealous.
$1,000
Get a room painted!
No joke, we'll come and paint a room for you. Walls and trim! Rough size 12x12. Wife want something spruced up, mom need an eye sore taken care of, then this is the perfect bite for you. Why break your back? Let us do it and we're even insured so nothing can wrong! Oh yeah and obviously get a dvd. GIVE THIS AS A GIFT TO SOMEONE WHO NEEDS WORK DONE!
Please note - MUST BE WITHIN A 30 MILE RADIUS OF NEEDHAM MA.
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Wishlist
Use the WishList to pledge cash and loan items - or - Make a pledge by selecting an incentive directly.
$10
Guppy
On-line shout out from the White Death team.
$25
Credit and a thank you!
Get your name in the thank you section of the credits of the finished film and shout out from the shark boys.
$50
MOBY DICK PASSAGE NARRATED BY BRIAN
Have you ever wanted to hear the wistful prose of Herman Melville's timeless classic read to you by a "good ole' boy" from Needham? Well now's your chance. Lead Actor Brian Hasenfus will record and send you your own personalized passage while chain smoking and doing other things we probably shouldn't list(seed n spark might drop us).
$100
the solid homie option - VIP ticket to local premiere screening
Get a ticket to the already sold out Madison Square Garden release of White Death with Jay Z doing the intermission. Not exactly, but we will show it somewhere here in suburbs! One of the many great arthouses and you'll be top dog!
$250
Gutters cleaned out for Fall!
WE DON'T WANT TO READ ABOUT YOU IN THE PAPER! ... or hear you say - "I've fallen and I can't get up!"
Get your gutters cleaned out by the Donovan Painting crew and help us make our film. You need it done anyways...Witness the phenomenon firsthand, you will never be the same!
Please note - MUST BE WITHIN A 20 MILE RADIUS OF NEEDHAM MA.
$250
Solid homie on juice
Don't worry you won't be tested. Get your name in our credits as a key supporter. And a grand VIP ticket to the local premiere screening. PS - We won't club you like some homies do.
$250
Bathroom Ceiling REDUX
Everybody has a peeling ceiling in their bathroom right ? Mildew? Time for a make-over!
20 mile Radius of Needham ma. Get your ceiling done plus all trim a fresh coat.
$350
Powerwash your home or deck or whatever!
We will come and powerwash whatever you need washed. A deck, your entire home - MANSIONS NOT INCLUDED! Ernie Boch need not apply. But seriously for those in Massachusetts(only), we'll come make sure everything looks sparkly and clean again! Give this as a gift to someone you know needs it!
Please note - MUST BE WITHIN A 30 MILE RADIUS OF NEEDHAM MA.
$1,000
Producer credit - you too can be STEVEN! & Come on a shark trip!!!
For a g you'll become part of the team, an official credited producer. ALSO come and join the crew on our shark adventure as we actually film the Masterpiece - witness movie magic that would make Spielberg jealous.
$1,000
Get a room painted!
No joke, we'll come and paint a room for you. Walls and trim! Rough size 12x12. Wife want something spruced up, mom need an eye sore taken care of, then this is the perfect bite for you. Why break your back? Let us do it and we're even insured so nothing can wrong! Oh yeah and obviously get a dvd. GIVE THIS AS A GIFT TO SOMEONE WHO NEEDS WORK DONE!
Please note - MUST BE WITHIN A 30 MILE RADIUS OF NEEDHAM MA.
- Updates
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Current Team
About This Team
From the terrain of suburban backyard filmmaking, I been making DIY films for as long as I can remember. VHS, hi-8, mini-dv I got stacks of tapes in the basement documenting my many creations, most bad, a pinch good, but all are part of the learning curve. It started with my own version of Robocop and grew from there. Everyone's Got One was my first feature film, a riff on King of Comedy. In 2010 I made the feature Phillip The Fossil premiering at SXSW and winning a special jury award. My next feature Rubberneck came in 2012 and was distributed by Tribeca fIlms. And most recently I am one of the featured documentarian directors in the up and coming election day documentary simply titled 11/8/16; an account of that rather "interesting" day. Orchard distribtuon is releasing the film in the fall on the anniversary - Garth Donovan
Dennis Staroselsky has been acting professionally since the age of 13. His credits include the the world premiere of An Early History of Fire, at The New Group NYC , as well as appearances at regional theatres such as the A.R.T. The Huntington Theatre Co., Geva Theatre Center, Dallas Theater Center, The Paper Mill Playhouse. His TV & Film credits include Nurse Jackie, All My Children, It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia, Jericho, The Michael J. Fox Show, Ghostwriter, Law & Order, White Colllar , Madame Secretary and the feature films Rubberneck, We Don’t Belong Here. Dennis currently can be seen as “Detective Jones” in the Kathryn Bigelow feature Detroit as well as the upcoming feature The Burning Woman, alongside Sienna Miller and Aaron Paul. As a playwright his first full length play Just About Cured was produced by the Stella Adler Studio of Acting in New York City in the fall of 2014. He holds a BFA from Boston University and an MA in theater education from NYU.
Xavier Gath is a writer, director, and actor who graduated from Tisch School of the Arts at NYU. His short films have screened at festivals internationally, including Nitehawk Shorts Fest in Brooklyn and the Chicago Comedy Film Festival. Along with his friends Rob and Evan, Xavier is one third of the sketch group Good Culture. Their shorts have been featured on CollegeHumor and regularly screen at the Upright Citizens Brigade Theater in New York and Los Angeles. -
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