We are EXTREMELY passionate about telling female driven stories that transcend your typical hollywood stereotypes. This film is co-created and starring a mother and daughter and shot by a female D.P. making it a truly inter-generational feminist film.

Tripping with Mom….

We are Amy & Rivka, a mother and daughter duo from Brooklyn NY. Throughout the years as a single mother and an only daughter we have played many roles in each others' lives and the idea of “mother- daughter” has often shape-shifted. 

 

Two summers ago I asked my mom to go down to the Jersey Shore to trip on mushrooms ... and to let me film it.  Although hesitant - she said YES. The following summer we returned to the same house with the amazingly talented D.P. Meredith Adelaide to re-create the experience we had on our trip and to shoot a film about it.  What resulted was 7 hours of footage exploring the mother-daughter relationship thru the lens of a psychadelic experience. 

 

 

We made this film as a way to explore our relationship and how the process of aging affects us. We are both turning pivotal ages: Rivka 30 and Amy 70. For women aging has certain cultural connotations that bring up unique anxieties and fears. Our film explores where these anxieties intersect for the millennial and the baby-boomer.

 Why Mushrooms?
 Psilocybin mushrooms or “magic mushrooms” have been used in religious and spiritual practices   throughout the world since ancient times as a way to connect with spirit. 

They have a deep history as being used for rites of passage and ritual.  For this reason - they allowed us and our characters in the film - to shed ourselves of everyday inhibitions and realities allowing us to communicate with each other and ourselves on a deeper level. The film grapples with these discoveries… and ultimately what we find when we jump off the cliff together.

 Let’s Talk About Life and Death

This is a film about confronting our fear of death. Your mother brings you into this world. She guides you. At some point in the process you guide her. Eventually you will lose her (or perhaps she will lose you). This is an inevitable truth - one that lives in our gut - and yet one rarely discussed openly in our culture.  This film is our attempt as a mother and daughter to grasp at this inevitable truth.

 

       

 Part Documentary - Part Scripted -  Part Improv....TOTALLY PSYCHEDELIC

 Our mission is to combine the documentary footage of our trip with the re-created footage into one   cohesive film. We love this idea of using documentary and scripted footage fluidly - to the point   where the audience is unsure which is which. When we shot the second   summer we made it our   goal to match everything from set, wardrobe and props to the original footage of our trip.... and it   worked.

    (Stills from documentary footage and scripted footage - 1 year apart)    

           

Creating this film with footage from the real and re-created experience is also vital to our story telling. One of the most positive elements of our experience with mushrooms together was how long lasting the emotional and spiritual healing was for our relationship and ourselves. It is not something that only occurs during the trip - but continues to be a reflective experience for years after. Combining footage a year a part into one film that takes place in one day is a way of embodying this timeless experience on screen. 

 Intuition, Meredith Adelaide & The Female Gaze 

 

One of the most magical moments of this process was bringing on board Meredith Adelaide as our D.P. Finding the right person to film this extremely vulnerable and private experience between a mother and daughter would be key. It would also be important for Amy to be comfortable in the presence of whoever was filming - as this would be her first time on screen. It was pure intuition that Meredith was the one to take this job on. We both felt her perspective as a photographer and artist spoke to us and more importantly our guts were screaming "her." So I asked and she said yes, with equal intuitive knowing.... And that's really what so much of this project became about - the gut. 

 

 

Our experience in shooting this film was an experience of working in a way that was so predominently female in energy... that this phrase "female gaze" began to make sense to us beyond simply "female directed." Working in the feminine energy meant predominently following our gut at all times and leading from a place of intuitive feeling over pre-determined story. 

 

 We built our final script over the course of a year - through rehearsals & improvisations, which included dance - writing - and often stream of concious speaking in a white room. A week before our shoot we took all of our accumlated "spaghetti on the wall" and created a story board.  However, the real story was created in the moment - coming from a deep space of intuitive collaboration between all 3 women. 

        

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Where We Are In The Process & Why We Need You!

We are excited to continue this work and begin the post-production process for this film. However, in order for us to accomplish this WE NEED YOU. We deeply belive in the power of crowdfunding and have faith that this is the most powerful way to finance our film.  

                                               

 

 If you feel strongly about supporting intergenerational women driven projects this is a great opportunity to put your money where your heart is.

 

 

Your funding will go directly toward editing together the scripted footage with the documentary. Funding will also go toward post production costs like:

 

+ Editing the film.

+ Sound-Design

+ Color Correction

+ Music / Score

+ Marketing, and festival submissions.

SPECIAL INCENTIVE:  HALLIE BATEMAN LIMITED EDITION Prints + Totebag

Hallie Bateman is a writer and illustrator based in Los Angeles. She co-wrote a book with her mother Suzy Hopkins called "What To Do When I'm Gone: A Mother's Wisdom To HerDaughter." Hallie also did mushrooms with her mother! A fact our own Meredith Adelaide discovered when the two met at a dinner party. Hallie even did illustrations during her trip and they are now avalable for you to own as a reward. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

WE CANNOT DO THIS WITHOUT YOU & ARE VERY GRATEFUL FOR YOU SUPPORT!

 

 

       PRESS:    PAPER MAGAZINE