BEDROOM TOWN is a skate film, a coming-of-age story, and a slice of suburban California life.

Our main character, Blaise, senses that the world has labeled him as "different," but doesn't know why. His parents, his brother, complete strangers treat him with an otherness that puzzles him. He finds that the one outlet for his questions is the thing that keeps his mom occupied day and night: a strange-yet-familiar voice in her phone.

It's a short film that portrays an eight-year-old growing up in a world completely altered by technology, where the old rituals of childhood now run alongside AI companions, algorithmic rabbit holes, and the strange new possibility of truly private conversations. It's about the loneliness of being a queer kid before having the word for it, about being part of a culture like skateboarding that puts certain expectations around gender and sexuality, and about how the screens and voices that define modern life can confuse reality with simulation.

I want to make a film about the specific experience of being a queer kid who doesn't have the word yet or even the concept. Growing up with an identity tied to sports, the world makes assumptions about the rest of your identity. You learn about queerness through insults, through jokes, and through judgement. You tell yourself a story based on these things before you even know who you are and how you feel, and that breeds a unique kind of confusion.

There's something new about the way young people navigate that today. Through screens, through strangers, through the low-stakes anonymity of talking to the internet. We are seeing the first generation of children raised with that kind of outlet always available, always patient, and getting harder to distinguish from the real thing.

Shot on Super 16mm in the arid suburbs of Southern California, BEDROOM TOWN lives in the register of Janet Planet, Mid90s, 20th Century Women, and Paris, Texas: subtle, observational, deeply personal. The film will be imbued with the softness of the medium, the dynamics of skate culture, and the innocent lens of childhood.

JANET PLANET (2023, Annie Baker) - The intimate scale of childhood: long, quiet summer days, a mother’s complicated world glimpsed through a child’s eyes. Bedroom Town shares its unhurried attention and its deep empathy for imperfect parents.

MID-90'S (2018, Jonah Hill) - Skateboarding as outlet, brotherhood, and survival. The texture of Southern California summer: hot pavement, strip malls, boys figuring out who they are. Bedroom Town lives in that same golden, grainy world.

20TH CENTURY WOMEN (2016, Mike Mills) - A child who sees his mother too clearly. A household of love and gender and growing up. Mills’ empathy for every character, including the flawed adults, is the emotional register Bedroom Town strives for.

PARIS, TEXAS (1984, Wim Wenders) - Estranged parents, lonely children, the American Southwest, and a deep, rewarding patience.

The amount we’re asking represents the final push we need to go into production.

Crew — We're working with a skeleton team of collaborators who believe in this project. Your support covers wages for the people on set who make the film possible.

Child welfare — California law requires a certified welfare worker on set whenever minors are working. This cost is built into our budget, along with extra provisions to accommodate parents and guardians on set.

Super 16mm film stock and processing — We're shooting on film! Film costs money that digital doesn't, and it gives the film a quality that digital can't.

$8,000 is the amount we need to complete production. Anything we can raise on top of that will go to post-production and distribution. This would cover the essential work of editing, sound design, festival submissions, and more.

Kimberly Scarsella — Writer/Director Kimberly is a queer filmmaker based in New York City. She came up through VFX and camera departments on productions including Greta Gerwig's Little Women and Disney's Jungle Cruise. She has since built a body of work defined by realism tinged with nostalgia and a gift for finding universal stories in unexpected places. Her bilingual short Il Pezzo premiered at Raindance Film Festival in 2025. Her most recent film, Look at Ruby, is a short about queer girlhood premiering in August 2026. Bedroom Town is her third short film as writer/director.

Kim Peeler Callaway — Producer Kim is a writer, director, producer, and founder of Pillowfight!! Productions in Los Angeles. With nearly two decades of experience across original series, commercials, music videos, documentary and narrative work, she has produced for Amazon, Fox, MTV, The Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences, and AOL/Huffington Post Media Group, where she served as Creative Executive overseeing development and production. She was a 2023 Screencraft Fellowship Finalist for her feature screenplayThirst, and her produced work has garnered multiple audience awards, four first-place Telly Awards, and official selections at dozens of international film festivals.

Dan Debrey — Director of Photography Dan is a New York-based cinematographer and MFA graduate of the American Film Institute. His work spans features, shorts, and music videos, including the Shudder horror feature The Runner (dir. Boy Harsher) and the festival short Coach (dir. David Call). His cinematography has been covered by Variety, Deadline, Paper Magazine, Nowness, and Document Journal.

Sean Bendon — Editor Sean is a skateboard journalist, filmmaker, and editor whose work lives at the intersection of skate culture and documentary storytelling. He is the creator of the series $100 Chill and a longtime contributor to Skate Jawn Magazine. He shot and co-edited Kimberly's previous short film, and brings to Bedroom Town a deep fluency in the world the film inhabits.

Thank you for making it this far! With your help, we can truly make something special. One of the best ways you can join our effort is by spreading the word. If you'd like to see this film made, let your networks know!

Please share our campaign in any way you can: social media, email, word-of-mouth, text, etc. We are so grateful for your support!