Battersea
Durham, North Carolina | Film Feature
Drama
In the wake of their mother’s death, two estranged siblings reunite for a long weekend at their childhood home in Nowhere, Ohio. Despite holding one another responsible for their familial failures, their reunion is pleasant at first. But, as the weekend goes on, tensions rise.
Battersea
Durham, North Carolina | Film Feature
Drama
1 Campaigns | Ohio, United States
Green Light
This campaign raised $32,555 for post-production. Follow the filmmaker to receive future updates on this project.
125 supporters | followers
Enter the amount you would like to pledge
In the wake of their mother’s death, two estranged siblings reunite for a long weekend at their childhood home in Nowhere, Ohio. Despite holding one another responsible for their familial failures, their reunion is pleasant at first. But, as the weekend goes on, tensions rise.
About The Project
- The Story
- Wishlist
- Updates
- The Team
- Community
Mission Statement
The Story
SYNOPSIS
Battersea centers around two estranged siblings—LouEllen and Les—who, after the death of their mother, reunite for a weekend at their childhood home in Small Town, Ohio. It’s an old, familiar story: Lou fled their hometown, Les stayed—each choice resulting in its own heap of baggage. As they reacquaint, these last remaining members of a beleaguered family must decide how much to dig into their past, and what, if anything, can be salvaged.
WHY?
If you’re like us, where you come from and where you want to go are in constant conflict. How do we get from here to there? How do we create the lives we envision for ourselves? Become who we want to be? Although our internal evolutions and setbacks can be difficult to track--the relentless ebbs and flows--the most tangible and primary way that we shape our futures, perhaps, is by deciding who to include. Which relationships do we maintain? Which do we let die? And at what cost?
For most of us, our first community is our family, with whom we share so much history and formative experiences—all the old inside jokes and secret hurts. But as we grow and move and change and stay the same, often our responsibility and connection to each other can become murky. How well do we really end up knowing our parents, our siblings, our great aunts, and second cousins? What connects us besides blood? Is it enough?
For Lou and Les, like many of us, the disconnect they feel is rooted in their family’s inability to process tragedy. Like many Midwesterners, they have an inborn belief that they can work through trauma on their own, that they shouldn’t burden the people they love with their pain. So they hold onto it. And they resent holding onto it. This is one way that families can fall apart. The unsaid festers, metastasizes. Becomes a rotten thing that’s passed on from generation to generation, secondhand wounds that have lost their context, that are everyone's and no one's fault.
Maybe the stakes aren’t always so high, but every family has its fissures, its secrets, histories that can keep us from opening certain doors with the people we love. We wanted to explore how the individual and collective stories we tell ourselves impede our ability to really see and speak to each other. We wanted to see what would happen if we forced these smart, funny, self-reliant people to throw open the doors and access their own vulnerability, as best they can. Why? Because we need the practice. Because we want that openness for ourselves, for each other, for you.
NOTE FROM THE CREATORS
In 2014, fresh out of grad school and burnt out on our own writing projects, we started to kick around the possibility of trying to write a screenplay together. We found a spot halfway between Cleveland and Durham—a cold cabin with no running water in Flatwoods, West Virginia—and spent two days brainstorming ideas, talking about the stories we wanted to tell. We didn’t know what we were doing.
And nearly a decade later, after hundreds of drafts, thousands of pages suffered over and deleted, darlings killed, a truly astonishing number of hours spent on the phone, in disagreement, dilemma, damage control. After countless mistakes, humiliations, educations on the business and craft, early drafts sent to friends that we’d like to erase from their brains Eternal-Sunshine-of-Spotless-Mind style, cold emails, cold calls, crows eaten, dead ends, Zooms, Skypes, literally one million emails, stacks and stacks of self-tapes and auditions, and the many dozens of meetings with the wrong people. After nearly a decade of setbacks, five location changes, three re-castings, one pandemic, another wholesale rewrite, a string of windfalls, and all our savings, we found a dozen people as foolishly optimistic as we are—every one of them a perfect fit—who were eager to tell this story. It has been, in our humble opinion, an incredibly successful and rewarding process, and we are forever indebted to the people who helped (and those yet to help) bring this film to life. We couldn’t be luckier.
POST-PRODUCTION & BUDGET
This film is truly the product of a thousand miracles. At every stage, we’ve been incredibly fortunate to find people better and brighter than us to help us execute this vision. And now, the lion’s share of the work is done. All that’s left is to edit, color grade, score, and mix the film, which still represents a ton more work and, unfortunately, money.
Our primary goal is to raise $30,000. That will cover our core editing needs. But, if we've learned anything, it's to expect to go over budget. Factoring that in, and also submitting to film festivals (another exorbitant cost that will otherwise come out of our own pockets, which we've thoroughly emptied), we expect post-production to ultimately be closer to $40,000.
We think we have something really special here—we worked so long and so hard on it—we’d appreciate any contribution, and we can’t wait to share it with you.
SUPPORT
So many talented, big-hearted artists came together to film BATTERSEA. But we need YOUR HELP to get us across the finish line! Every donation, large and small, will go a long way.
From the bottom of our hearts, we appreciate your time and consideration! Here's how you can get involved:
- MAKE A PLEDGE - And select an incentive (a small token of our gratitude to pair with our undying loyalty).
- SHARE OUR CAMPAIGN - Share this page with your friends, fam, strangers on the street, etc.!
- FOLLOW THE PROJECT - Follow on Seed&Spark (top of the page) and IG: @batterseafilm
Wishlist
Use the WishList to Pledge cash and Loan items - or - Make a pledge by selecting an Incentive directly.
Sound Mix & Score
Costs $5,000
A good film has gotta' sound good! Help us pair our excellent prod audio w/ a killer mix and score.
Editing
Costs $10,000
We have many, many hours of footage to cut into, say, a 75 minute film. A hard and honorable job!
Color Grading
Costs $5,000
Eye-catching colors to match those sweet, sweet frames.
Post Supervision & Fees
Costs $5,000
There are a lot of moving pieces here! The post-prod supervisor will ensure it all comes together.
Festival Submission Fees
Costs $5,000
Our road to distribution goes through the film festivals. Let's get some eyes on this thing!
Cash Pledge
Costs $0
Direct link:
Share this update!
About This Team
T.J. Sandella / Writer, Co-Director, Producer
T.J. Sandella is one half of Glass Brothers Productions. He's the author of Ways to Beg (Black Lawrence Press), which was a finalist or semi-finalist for several awards, including the Miller Williams Poetry Prize (University of Arkansas Press), the Brittingham & Felix Pollak Prizes (University of Wisconsin Press), and the Crab Orchard First Book Award. Selected by Dorianne Laux for inclusion in the Best New Poets anthology, he is the recipient of an Elinor Benedict Prize for Poetry, a William Matthews Poetry Prize, two Academy of American Poets Prizes, and two pushcart prize nominations. He lives in Cleveland, Ohio.
Jad Adkins / Writer, Producer
Jad is the other half of Glass Brothers Productions. He recieved his MFA in Creative Nonfiction from Georgia College, and has had essays published in a handful of journals. He lives in Durham, NC.
Nancy Kimball / Lead
Nancy Kimball is a New York based actor. She grew up in the Bay Area and graduated from NYU Tisch Drama in the Spring of 2020. She studied at the Stella Adler Studio of Acting and has since worked in film, television, and theatre.
Jesse Howland / Lead
Jesse Howland is an American film, television, and stage actor. He was born in Fayetteville, North Carolina and graduated from Hoke County High School before moving and receiving his degree from the American Academy of Dramatic Arts acting conservatory. He currently resides in Los Angeles.
John Anthony / Co-Director
John Anthony is an independent filmmaker based in Carrboro, North Carolina. Making movies has always been his dream. He also likes plants.
A few of his favorite active directors are Sean Baker, Kelly Reichardt, PTA, Yorgos Lanthimos, and Scorsese. He is inspired by filmmakers like Steven Soderbergh who manage to strike a balance in their work between personal and commercial.
After film school, he directed a few shorts and some commercial work here and there. This is John’s second feature film. Since 2011, he has logged nearly 3,100 films on Letterboxd.
Andrew Kennedy / Director of Photography
Andrew Kennedy graduated from the University of North Carolina (2010), where he finished a mini-doc for Maya Angelou’s Healthy Equity Center in Winston Salem. After spending 2 years working as a camera assistant in LA, Andrew took a full time DP position at a boutique production company in Raleigh, NC.
In 2018, Andrew stepped down as a shooter/editor to pursue his passion in film and cinematography. Since, Andrew has served as a DP and gaffer on various projects including independent features, corporate communications, and documentary productions. A follower of Brené Brown's research on vulnerability, Andrew believes in the power that story has to create interpersonal and systematic change within our culture, leading to healthier families, communities, workplaces and yes, even a better world.
Mike Stipe / Production Sound
Mike Stipe is a sound mixer based in Durham, NC. Influenced by music from an early age, Mike’s formative years were marked by experiences like hearing his dad play the jazz standard “Alice in Wonderland” on his upright bass as toddler and dancing to Scott Joplin ragtime scrolls on his grandmother’s player-piano. He went on to earn a degree in trumpet performance and media production from UNC Chapel Hill. Shortly thereafter, Mike found himself working at a recording studio in Durham, which put him on the path to eventually co-found his own video production company, 36 North, in 2017.
Developing a keen ear has led Mike to his calling as a field mixer and provided him the opportunity to work with Grammy winning musicians, world class athletes, and celebrity chefs in a wide range of projects from documentaries and reality TV shows to broadcast television and commercials. His tenacious attention to detail has earned him the trust of the most discerning directors and his helpfulness and camaraderie always has a positive impact on set.
Shannon Malone / Production Design
Shannon Malone has worked professionally in film and theater for 25 years. She is passionate about bringing stories to life both in front of the camera and behind it. Originally from Atlanta, she’s lived and worked in New York, San Francisco, and Los Angeles. She now resides in North Carolina with her husband, actor/writer Jim Roof, and their two dogs, Lily and Bruce.
Erika Arlee / Advisor, Post-Production Supervisor
Erika Arlee is a writer, director, cinematographer, and co-founder of the award-winning production company, Honey Head Films. Her work spans genres while maintaining a character-driven approach to avant-garde storytelling. A constant receptor to lighting bolts of inspiration, Erika is the author of 10 narrative short films, 4 feature films, and a TV pilot. Her debut feature film, A Song For Imogene, is set to premiere summer 2023.
Chris Miller / Composer
Chris Miller is a composer living in West Virginia. He has a BFA in Music Composition from Marshall University. Chris has written symphonic works, played in bands, and scored television shows.
Logan Tabor / Editor
With over a decade of experience as a film editor and sound engineer, Logan Tabor is the editor of A Song for Imogene and a slew of of music videos and shorts. He's also the vocalist for alltheprettythings--your new favorite band.
Kelsey Nethercot / Hair & Makeup
Kelsey Nethercot is a master stylist with 15 years of salon experience, and can currently be found at the Salon Lofts in Downtown Durham. Passionate about expanding and continuing her education and experience, Kelsey has a history of attending hair shows and industry events and working larger venues such as weddings and photo shoots - the one missing piece of experience, the one that initially inspired her to become a stylist in her youth, was the film industry. With Hollywood aspirations and inspirations, when presented with the opportunity to work on a film set, Kelsey was beyond thrilled to offer her services in support of her local community. Aside from leading the H&MU department, she also provided voiceover, was an extra, and served as the onset therapist.
Current Team
Incentives
- The Story
- Wishlist
- Updates
- The Team
- Community
Mission Statement
The Story
SYNOPSIS
Battersea centers around two estranged siblings—LouEllen and Les—who, after the death of their mother, reunite for a weekend at their childhood home in Small Town, Ohio. It’s an old, familiar story: Lou fled their hometown, Les stayed—each choice resulting in its own heap of baggage. As they reacquaint, these last remaining members of a beleaguered family must decide how much to dig into their past, and what, if anything, can be salvaged.
WHY?
If you’re like us, where you come from and where you want to go are in constant conflict. How do we get from here to there? How do we create the lives we envision for ourselves? Become who we want to be? Although our internal evolutions and setbacks can be difficult to track--the relentless ebbs and flows--the most tangible and primary way that we shape our futures, perhaps, is by deciding who to include. Which relationships do we maintain? Which do we let die? And at what cost?
For most of us, our first community is our family, with whom we share so much history and formative experiences—all the old inside jokes and secret hurts. But as we grow and move and change and stay the same, often our responsibility and connection to each other can become murky. How well do we really end up knowing our parents, our siblings, our great aunts, and second cousins? What connects us besides blood? Is it enough?
For Lou and Les, like many of us, the disconnect they feel is rooted in their family’s inability to process tragedy. Like many Midwesterners, they have an inborn belief that they can work through trauma on their own, that they shouldn’t burden the people they love with their pain. So they hold onto it. And they resent holding onto it. This is one way that families can fall apart. The unsaid festers, metastasizes. Becomes a rotten thing that’s passed on from generation to generation, secondhand wounds that have lost their context, that are everyone's and no one's fault.
Maybe the stakes aren’t always so high, but every family has its fissures, its secrets, histories that can keep us from opening certain doors with the people we love. We wanted to explore how the individual and collective stories we tell ourselves impede our ability to really see and speak to each other. We wanted to see what would happen if we forced these smart, funny, self-reliant people to throw open the doors and access their own vulnerability, as best they can. Why? Because we need the practice. Because we want that openness for ourselves, for each other, for you.
NOTE FROM THE CREATORS
In 2014, fresh out of grad school and burnt out on our own writing projects, we started to kick around the possibility of trying to write a screenplay together. We found a spot halfway between Cleveland and Durham—a cold cabin with no running water in Flatwoods, West Virginia—and spent two days brainstorming ideas, talking about the stories we wanted to tell. We didn’t know what we were doing.
And nearly a decade later, after hundreds of drafts, thousands of pages suffered over and deleted, darlings killed, a truly astonishing number of hours spent on the phone, in disagreement, dilemma, damage control. After countless mistakes, humiliations, educations on the business and craft, early drafts sent to friends that we’d like to erase from their brains Eternal-Sunshine-of-Spotless-Mind style, cold emails, cold calls, crows eaten, dead ends, Zooms, Skypes, literally one million emails, stacks and stacks of self-tapes and auditions, and the many dozens of meetings with the wrong people. After nearly a decade of setbacks, five location changes, three re-castings, one pandemic, another wholesale rewrite, a string of windfalls, and all our savings, we found a dozen people as foolishly optimistic as we are—every one of them a perfect fit—who were eager to tell this story. It has been, in our humble opinion, an incredibly successful and rewarding process, and we are forever indebted to the people who helped (and those yet to help) bring this film to life. We couldn’t be luckier.
POST-PRODUCTION & BUDGET
This film is truly the product of a thousand miracles. At every stage, we’ve been incredibly fortunate to find people better and brighter than us to help us execute this vision. And now, the lion’s share of the work is done. All that’s left is to edit, color grade, score, and mix the film, which still represents a ton more work and, unfortunately, money.
Our primary goal is to raise $30,000. That will cover our core editing needs. But, if we've learned anything, it's to expect to go over budget. Factoring that in, and also submitting to film festivals (another exorbitant cost that will otherwise come out of our own pockets, which we've thoroughly emptied), we expect post-production to ultimately be closer to $40,000.
We think we have something really special here—we worked so long and so hard on it—we’d appreciate any contribution, and we can’t wait to share it with you.
SUPPORT
So many talented, big-hearted artists came together to film BATTERSEA. But we need YOUR HELP to get us across the finish line! Every donation, large and small, will go a long way.
From the bottom of our hearts, we appreciate your time and consideration! Here's how you can get involved:
- MAKE A PLEDGE - And select an incentive (a small token of our gratitude to pair with our undying loyalty).
- SHARE OUR CAMPAIGN - Share this page with your friends, fam, strangers on the street, etc.!
- FOLLOW THE PROJECT - Follow on Seed&Spark (top of the page) and IG: @batterseafilm
Wishlist
Use the WishList to Pledge cash and Loan items - or - Make a pledge by selecting an Incentive directly.
Sound Mix & Score
Costs $5,000
A good film has gotta' sound good! Help us pair our excellent prod audio w/ a killer mix and score.
Editing
Costs $10,000
We have many, many hours of footage to cut into, say, a 75 minute film. A hard and honorable job!
Color Grading
Costs $5,000
Eye-catching colors to match those sweet, sweet frames.
Post Supervision & Fees
Costs $5,000
There are a lot of moving pieces here! The post-prod supervisor will ensure it all comes together.
Festival Submission Fees
Costs $5,000
Our road to distribution goes through the film festivals. Let's get some eyes on this thing!
Cash Pledge
Costs $0
Direct link:
Share this update!
About This Team
T.J. Sandella / Writer, Co-Director, Producer
T.J. Sandella is one half of Glass Brothers Productions. He's the author of Ways to Beg (Black Lawrence Press), which was a finalist or semi-finalist for several awards, including the Miller Williams Poetry Prize (University of Arkansas Press), the Brittingham & Felix Pollak Prizes (University of Wisconsin Press), and the Crab Orchard First Book Award. Selected by Dorianne Laux for inclusion in the Best New Poets anthology, he is the recipient of an Elinor Benedict Prize for Poetry, a William Matthews Poetry Prize, two Academy of American Poets Prizes, and two pushcart prize nominations. He lives in Cleveland, Ohio.
Jad Adkins / Writer, Producer
Jad is the other half of Glass Brothers Productions. He recieved his MFA in Creative Nonfiction from Georgia College, and has had essays published in a handful of journals. He lives in Durham, NC.
Nancy Kimball / Lead
Nancy Kimball is a New York based actor. She grew up in the Bay Area and graduated from NYU Tisch Drama in the Spring of 2020. She studied at the Stella Adler Studio of Acting and has since worked in film, television, and theatre.
Jesse Howland / Lead
Jesse Howland is an American film, television, and stage actor. He was born in Fayetteville, North Carolina and graduated from Hoke County High School before moving and receiving his degree from the American Academy of Dramatic Arts acting conservatory. He currently resides in Los Angeles.
John Anthony / Co-Director
John Anthony is an independent filmmaker based in Carrboro, North Carolina. Making movies has always been his dream. He also likes plants.
A few of his favorite active directors are Sean Baker, Kelly Reichardt, PTA, Yorgos Lanthimos, and Scorsese. He is inspired by filmmakers like Steven Soderbergh who manage to strike a balance in their work between personal and commercial.
After film school, he directed a few shorts and some commercial work here and there. This is John’s second feature film. Since 2011, he has logged nearly 3,100 films on Letterboxd.
Andrew Kennedy / Director of Photography
Andrew Kennedy graduated from the University of North Carolina (2010), where he finished a mini-doc for Maya Angelou’s Healthy Equity Center in Winston Salem. After spending 2 years working as a camera assistant in LA, Andrew took a full time DP position at a boutique production company in Raleigh, NC.
In 2018, Andrew stepped down as a shooter/editor to pursue his passion in film and cinematography. Since, Andrew has served as a DP and gaffer on various projects including independent features, corporate communications, and documentary productions. A follower of Brené Brown's research on vulnerability, Andrew believes in the power that story has to create interpersonal and systematic change within our culture, leading to healthier families, communities, workplaces and yes, even a better world.
Mike Stipe / Production Sound
Mike Stipe is a sound mixer based in Durham, NC. Influenced by music from an early age, Mike’s formative years were marked by experiences like hearing his dad play the jazz standard “Alice in Wonderland” on his upright bass as toddler and dancing to Scott Joplin ragtime scrolls on his grandmother’s player-piano. He went on to earn a degree in trumpet performance and media production from UNC Chapel Hill. Shortly thereafter, Mike found himself working at a recording studio in Durham, which put him on the path to eventually co-found his own video production company, 36 North, in 2017.
Developing a keen ear has led Mike to his calling as a field mixer and provided him the opportunity to work with Grammy winning musicians, world class athletes, and celebrity chefs in a wide range of projects from documentaries and reality TV shows to broadcast television and commercials. His tenacious attention to detail has earned him the trust of the most discerning directors and his helpfulness and camaraderie always has a positive impact on set.
Shannon Malone / Production Design
Shannon Malone has worked professionally in film and theater for 25 years. She is passionate about bringing stories to life both in front of the camera and behind it. Originally from Atlanta, she’s lived and worked in New York, San Francisco, and Los Angeles. She now resides in North Carolina with her husband, actor/writer Jim Roof, and their two dogs, Lily and Bruce.
Erika Arlee / Advisor, Post-Production Supervisor
Erika Arlee is a writer, director, cinematographer, and co-founder of the award-winning production company, Honey Head Films. Her work spans genres while maintaining a character-driven approach to avant-garde storytelling. A constant receptor to lighting bolts of inspiration, Erika is the author of 10 narrative short films, 4 feature films, and a TV pilot. Her debut feature film, A Song For Imogene, is set to premiere summer 2023.
Chris Miller / Composer
Chris Miller is a composer living in West Virginia. He has a BFA in Music Composition from Marshall University. Chris has written symphonic works, played in bands, and scored television shows.
Logan Tabor / Editor
With over a decade of experience as a film editor and sound engineer, Logan Tabor is the editor of A Song for Imogene and a slew of of music videos and shorts. He's also the vocalist for alltheprettythings--your new favorite band.
Kelsey Nethercot / Hair & Makeup
Kelsey Nethercot is a master stylist with 15 years of salon experience, and can currently be found at the Salon Lofts in Downtown Durham. Passionate about expanding and continuing her education and experience, Kelsey has a history of attending hair shows and industry events and working larger venues such as weddings and photo shoots - the one missing piece of experience, the one that initially inspired her to become a stylist in her youth, was the film industry. With Hollywood aspirations and inspirations, when presented with the opportunity to work on a film set, Kelsey was beyond thrilled to offer her services in support of her local community. Aside from leading the H&MU department, she also provided voiceover, was an extra, and served as the onset therapist.