A Moral Hazard
Los Angeles, California | Film Short
Drama, Comedy
A Moral Hazard is a satirical short about power, privilege, and staggering stupidity. In a world where billionaires shape policy, executives dodge accountability, and confidence passes for competence, A Moral Hazard holds up a mirror with biting humor and uncomfortable truth.
Green Light
This campaign raised $12,015 for production. Follow the filmmaker to receive future updates on this project.
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A Moral Hazard is a satirical short about power, privilege, and staggering stupidity. In a world where billionaires shape policy, executives dodge accountability, and confidence passes for competence, A Moral Hazard holds up a mirror with biting humor and uncomfortable truth.
About The Project
- The Story
- Wishlist
- Updates
- The Team
- Community
Mission Statement
The Story
What’s This Story?
A Moral Hazard is a sharp, satirical short about Hugo, a young heir at a health-tech company who finds himself overseeing a pacemaker implantation he doesn’t understand. When the pressure mounts in the operating room, Hugo’s façade unravels, exposing the fragile mix of privilege, power, and incompetence that decides who gets protected when things go wrong.
This is a film that blends dark comedy and horror to explore the fallout when authority is given to those least equipped to handle it.
Hugo
Hugo is in his late 20s - he speaks with certainty, but it’s a performance: behind the polished smile is a swirl of anxiety, cluelessness, and entitlement. He doesn’t know how anything works - but he knows how to sound like he does, and that’s been enough to get him boardroom access, a fat paycheck, and undeserved authority. He’s not evil; he just doesn’t question the world that’s always served him. When forced into a real-life, high-stakes scenario - a hospital operating room - the cracks in his persona begin to show.
Why This Story? Why Now?
Have you seen the world out there?! Health crises, financial collapse, political failures. A Moral Hazard satirizes this phenomenon through one man in one hospital, but the questions ripple outward:
- Who do we trust with power?
- What happens when appearances matter more than competence?
- And why does accountability rarely reach the top?
As filmmakers, our backgrounds are steeped in telling human, absurd, and deeply personal stories. We’re drawn to the collision of comedy and dread - the kind of tone that makes you laugh and squirm in the same breath. That’s why this project matters to us, and why we believe it matters now.
Visual Style
A Moral Hazard is grounded in realism but tinged with satire - and the visual language mirrors this tension. The world is bright, clean, and clinical: fluorescent lighting, pale hospital walls, and glassy surfaces evoke a false sense of order and control. The camera often lingers just a beat too long, creating discomfort and drawing attention to the absurdity beneath the surface.
We’re inspired by the precision and stillness of Yorgos Lanthimos and the polished chaos of Succession - slow push-ins, locked-off wide shots, and shallow depth of field that isolates Hugo in sterile environments. But we also allow for spontaneous, anxious handheld moments when Hugo’s façade begins to crack, letting the camera reflect his internal unraveling.
Where We Are & Where We’re Going
We’ve built the script, assembled a passionate team, and developed a clear visual language.
Your support will directly fund:
- Location rentals (a hospital set)
- Equipment & lighting to achieve our cinematic look
- Cast & crew who bring the story to life
- Production design & wardrobe for authenticity
We plan to shoot in October 2025, edit in 2-3 months, and premiere at festivals in 2026/2027. Backers will receive updates along the way, behind-the-scenes content, and early access to the finished film.
Stretch Goals: If we surpass our $10K goal, we’ll expand post-production - investing in color, sound design, and festival submissions to give A Moral Hazard the widest possible audience.
Thank You!
From all of us on the A Moral Hazard team, thank you for supporting this film. Your belief in our story helps us bring it to life. We couldn’t make this without you, and we’re so grateful to have you with us on this journey.
Wishlist
Use the WishList to Pledge cash and Loan items - or - Make a pledge by selecting an Incentive directly.
Crafty and Catering
Costs $2,000
A well fed Team is a Happy Team :)
Hospital Set Rental
Costs $5,000
...Because it's hard to build from scratch.
Permits and Insurance
Costs $2,000
LA is costly!
Wardrobe and HMU
Costs $1,000
Otherwise our actors would be nude, and it's not THAT kind of movie.
Cash Pledge
Costs $0
Direct link:
Share this update!
About This Team
Peter Lee (writer-director) is an LA based, Irish writer and director who directed the pilot for documentary TV series Who We Are: Life Lessons From New Yorkers and whose debut feature Angelfish (2019), starring rapper Princess Nokia, Jimi Staton, and up-and-coming star Stanley Simons, played at TIFF Next Wave and was released by Dark Star Pictures in 2019.
Jasmine Karcey (producer) Jasmine Karcey is an LA based Cinematographer and Producer who has been working in the film and TV industry for twelve years. Growing up on Maui for most of her childhood she moved to Oregon where she eventually began to work in film. She and has been a part of the local 600 union for eight years. She has worked in the Camera Department of Netflix Shows such as The OA, American Vandal, and Everything Sucks.
Lila Schmitz (producer) is a filmmaker with experience making independent films from scratch and working on big budget projects as a part of a huge team. She spends her days working in Content Operations for Dropout TV and her free time making films and telling stories with friends. Her work includes documentaries about musicians and comedians, such as The Job of Songs (DOC NYC premiere, streaming on Amazon), The Roll of a Lifetime: How Dimension 20 Sold Out Madison Square Garden (Dropout TV), the Get Your Act Together series (Dropout TV), and Jaiel (Rocky Mountain PBS). She also writes, directs, and produces scripted shorts like Love in the Time of Corona , Queer Qafé, a series of music videos for the artist Jaiel, and the upcoming Josephine’s Untitled Storybook.
Markus Mentzer (Cinematographer) is based in Los Angeles. Working in features, television and commercials, his projects include Netflix’s “I Think You Should Leave”, Sony’s “I Wanna Dance with Somebody,” as well as indie features THE SECRET ART OF HUMAN FLIGHT and the Sundance nominated CLARA’S GHOST.
Current Team
Incentives
- The Story
- Wishlist
- Updates
- The Team
- Community
Mission Statement
The Story
What’s This Story?
A Moral Hazard is a sharp, satirical short about Hugo, a young heir at a health-tech company who finds himself overseeing a pacemaker implantation he doesn’t understand. When the pressure mounts in the operating room, Hugo’s façade unravels, exposing the fragile mix of privilege, power, and incompetence that decides who gets protected when things go wrong.
This is a film that blends dark comedy and horror to explore the fallout when authority is given to those least equipped to handle it.
Hugo
Hugo is in his late 20s - he speaks with certainty, but it’s a performance: behind the polished smile is a swirl of anxiety, cluelessness, and entitlement. He doesn’t know how anything works - but he knows how to sound like he does, and that’s been enough to get him boardroom access, a fat paycheck, and undeserved authority. He’s not evil; he just doesn’t question the world that’s always served him. When forced into a real-life, high-stakes scenario - a hospital operating room - the cracks in his persona begin to show.
Why This Story? Why Now?
Have you seen the world out there?! Health crises, financial collapse, political failures. A Moral Hazard satirizes this phenomenon through one man in one hospital, but the questions ripple outward:
- Who do we trust with power?
- What happens when appearances matter more than competence?
- And why does accountability rarely reach the top?
As filmmakers, our backgrounds are steeped in telling human, absurd, and deeply personal stories. We’re drawn to the collision of comedy and dread - the kind of tone that makes you laugh and squirm in the same breath. That’s why this project matters to us, and why we believe it matters now.
Visual Style
A Moral Hazard is grounded in realism but tinged with satire - and the visual language mirrors this tension. The world is bright, clean, and clinical: fluorescent lighting, pale hospital walls, and glassy surfaces evoke a false sense of order and control. The camera often lingers just a beat too long, creating discomfort and drawing attention to the absurdity beneath the surface.
We’re inspired by the precision and stillness of Yorgos Lanthimos and the polished chaos of Succession - slow push-ins, locked-off wide shots, and shallow depth of field that isolates Hugo in sterile environments. But we also allow for spontaneous, anxious handheld moments when Hugo’s façade begins to crack, letting the camera reflect his internal unraveling.
Where We Are & Where We’re Going
We’ve built the script, assembled a passionate team, and developed a clear visual language.
Your support will directly fund:
- Location rentals (a hospital set)
- Equipment & lighting to achieve our cinematic look
- Cast & crew who bring the story to life
- Production design & wardrobe for authenticity
We plan to shoot in October 2025, edit in 2-3 months, and premiere at festivals in 2026/2027. Backers will receive updates along the way, behind-the-scenes content, and early access to the finished film.
Stretch Goals: If we surpass our $10K goal, we’ll expand post-production - investing in color, sound design, and festival submissions to give A Moral Hazard the widest possible audience.
Thank You!
From all of us on the A Moral Hazard team, thank you for supporting this film. Your belief in our story helps us bring it to life. We couldn’t make this without you, and we’re so grateful to have you with us on this journey.
Wishlist
Use the WishList to Pledge cash and Loan items - or - Make a pledge by selecting an Incentive directly.
Crafty and Catering
Costs $2,000
A well fed Team is a Happy Team :)
Hospital Set Rental
Costs $5,000
...Because it's hard to build from scratch.
Permits and Insurance
Costs $2,000
LA is costly!
Wardrobe and HMU
Costs $1,000
Otherwise our actors would be nude, and it's not THAT kind of movie.
Cash Pledge
Costs $0
Direct link:
Share this update!
About This Team
Peter Lee (writer-director) is an LA based, Irish writer and director who directed the pilot for documentary TV series Who We Are: Life Lessons From New Yorkers and whose debut feature Angelfish (2019), starring rapper Princess Nokia, Jimi Staton, and up-and-coming star Stanley Simons, played at TIFF Next Wave and was released by Dark Star Pictures in 2019.
Jasmine Karcey (producer) Jasmine Karcey is an LA based Cinematographer and Producer who has been working in the film and TV industry for twelve years. Growing up on Maui for most of her childhood she moved to Oregon where she eventually began to work in film. She and has been a part of the local 600 union for eight years. She has worked in the Camera Department of Netflix Shows such as The OA, American Vandal, and Everything Sucks.
Lila Schmitz (producer) is a filmmaker with experience making independent films from scratch and working on big budget projects as a part of a huge team. She spends her days working in Content Operations for Dropout TV and her free time making films and telling stories with friends. Her work includes documentaries about musicians and comedians, such as The Job of Songs (DOC NYC premiere, streaming on Amazon), The Roll of a Lifetime: How Dimension 20 Sold Out Madison Square Garden (Dropout TV), the Get Your Act Together series (Dropout TV), and Jaiel (Rocky Mountain PBS). She also writes, directs, and produces scripted shorts like Love in the Time of Corona , Queer Qafé, a series of music videos for the artist Jaiel, and the upcoming Josephine’s Untitled Storybook.
Markus Mentzer (Cinematographer) is based in Los Angeles. Working in features, television and commercials, his projects include Netflix’s “I Think You Should Leave”, Sony’s “I Wanna Dance with Somebody,” as well as indie features THE SECRET ART OF HUMAN FLIGHT and the Sundance nominated CLARA’S GHOST.