Blood Moon
Seattle, Washington | Film Short
LGBTQ, Romance
In a cultural moment where femme sexuality is still largely defined by the male gaze, Blood Moon reclaims the narrative. This is a story where menstruation isn't shameful, it's a portal. Where shadows aren't monsters to defeat, they're parts of ourselves we can integrate.
Blood Moon
Seattle, Washington | Film Short
LGBTQ, Romance
1 Campaigns | California, United States
116 supporters | followers
Enter the amount you would like to pledge
$12,919
Goal: $11,500 for production
In a cultural moment where femme sexuality is still largely defined by the male gaze, Blood Moon reclaims the narrative. This is a story where menstruation isn't shameful, it's a portal. Where shadows aren't monsters to defeat, they're parts of ourselves we can integrate.
About The Project
- The Story
- Wishlist
- Updates
- The Team
- Community
Mission Statement
The Story
A queer painter's heartache and menstrual cycle lead her on a journey through a parallel universe where she discovers the ability to love herself.
As Scarlet struggles with visceral memories of her ex-girlfriend Rose, her menstrual cycle opens a portal to another world. She ventures through a forest where her inner demons pursue her as shadows in the trees. At a moonlit lake, she encounters the Gold Figure, a non-binary manifestation of her past, present, and future, and must choose between clinging to lost love or embracing herself.
Blood Moon is a film by queer and femme-identifying people about female sexuality, intimacy, and self-love.
Follow the journey: @blood.moon.film on Instagram
Follow, tag, comment, share. We can't wait to interact with you ❤️
In a cultural moment where LGBTQ+ rights and women's bodily autonomy face unprecedented attack, Blood Moon reclaims the narrative. This is a story where menstruation isn't shameful, it's a portal. Where shadows aren't monsters to defeat, they're parts of ourselves we can integrate. Where self-love isn't an Instagram quote, it's a hard-won journey through our own darkness.
When our bodies are legislated rather than celebrated, embracing them in all their messy, menstruating, desiring complexity, becomes an act of resistance. Blood Moon asks: How do we love ourselves again after heartbreak? How do we reconnect with our bodies when the world tells us they're wrong? Scarlet's surreal, sensual journey answers that question not with politics, but with pleasure, grief, and transformation.
Blood Moon's exterior world is tactile, elemental, and alive. Cinematographer Seth Halleran shoots with a naturalist eye. We'll film wide open fields at golden hour, moonlit water, and a forest canopy reaching towards the light. The color palette runs cool and earthy: deep blues, forest greens, the warm amber of skin in fading sun. Here's how we're bringing that vision to life:
- The camera stays close. Close to the body, to sensation, to the feeling of being alive inside a single moment. Inspired by the raw intimacy of American Honey (2016).
- The landscape becomes psychological. Like Morvern Callar (2002), our exteriors are a mirror for internal states, not just backdrop.
- Memory is visual. We draw from The Virgin Suicides (1999) and Tree of Life (2011) to explore the beauty of what's lost and what lingers.
- The world is femme and music-driven. The visual references in our crowdfunding video ground the film in a lineage of bold, female centered cinema. The Velvet Underground (2021), Under the Skin (2012), Annihilation (2018), Bright Star (2009), Melancholia (2008), and X (2022)
We don't come to you empty-handed. In February 2024, we filmed the intimate interior sequences you saw in our trailer. These scenes capture Scarlet's isolation and heartbreak, her cyclical pain, and the confined world she's trying to escape. Her bedroom, bathroom, paint studio, and kitchen. The response has been overwhelming.
Now we're ready to complete the vision with our Summer 2026 shoot - the parallel universe where Scarlet finally breaks free, plus a mixed media sequence at iconic Seattle haunts. We'll be in Index, WA, filming Scarlet in the forest and floating in the lake below the blood moon. Then, we’ll film and take 35mm film photographs at local spots Dick's Drive-In and The Whit's End to create a textured montage that establishes the passion and excitement of Scarlet and Rose’s romance before its inevitable demise.
This is the sci-fi, surreal heart of the film: forest sequences where her shadow chases her, the lake where she experiences a spiritual rebirth, and her encounter with the Gold Figure that represents her past, present, and future.
We also submitted a detailed application and were awarded fiscal sponsorship through Northwest Film Forum - one of the Pacific Northwest's most beloved independent film organizations. Their sponsorship means your donation is tax-deductible and directly supports the independent film ecosystem that makes Blood Moon possible.
February 2025 - Filmed interiors in Tacoma, Washington
March 2025 - March 2026 - Pre-Production for exteriors - location scouting, script refinement, VFX development, completed rough cut edit, Kalee moves to LA to further pursue her filmmaking career
April 2026 - Crowdfunding campaign launches (that's now!)
August 2026 (or summer 2027 if necessary) - Principal Photography - 3-day exterior shoot
August - October 2026 - Post-Production: editing, VFX, sound design, color grading, and scoring
Fall 2026 - Film festival submissions, including Outfest (Los Angeles), Frameline (San Francisco), Slamdance (Park City), Seattle Queer Film Festival, and Fantasia International Film Festival (Montreal)
2027 - Festival circuit and distribution
Every dollar you contribute goes directly to making Blood Moon. We've secured $2,050 in in-kind contributions from our collaborators, which means your support goes straight to the production itself.
Campaign Goal: $11,500
One line item that might surprise you is Lodging. Our exterior shoot takes place in Index, Washington, a remote, stunning location just over an hour from Seattle. Rather than send our cast and crew home late at night after long shoot days, we're keeping everyone on-site. It's how we protect the work and take care of our people.
Our ideal outcome! It will allow us to wrap production comfortably and move smoothly into post production and festivals.
- $13,000 - Production Complete Principal photography fully funded — cast, crew, locations, lodging, and all production expenses covered. Sam Ricci begins sound post-production.
- $14,500 - Post-Production Sound Full sound design, mix, and original score with sound designer Sam Ricci and composer Sasha Bolof.
- $15,500 - Festival Strategy Expanded festival submissions beyond our initial slate - getting Blood Moon in front of the programmers and audiences it deserves.
- $17,000 - Full Post-Production & Contingency Every post element fully funded, nothing deferred, nothing compromised. This is where we can make Blood Moon exactly what we've envisioned:
Blood Moon began three years ago from a place of real heartbreak and self-discovery. I was questioning my identity, and writing became a form of self-care - but as the story formed, I realized the message was bigger than me. Finding yourself again after a relationship ends is something almost everyone goes through, but nobody hands you a guide. I became fascinated with imagination and visualization as a path back to yourself and realized that path could be cinematic. We live in a world where women are punished for being sexual, a world that doesn’t give anyone permission to pause, look inward, and love what they see. I hope Blood Moon gives people permission to explore themselves and their sexuality more deeply, to sit with desire, grief, and transformation without apology.
This film exists because of our community. Through Seattle Film Society, The Grand Illusion Cinema, and SECS Fest, I found collaborators who understood what I was reaching for before I could fully articulate it myself. Blood Moon has been built slowly, carefully, and with tremendous love. I am endlessly grateful.
Thank you for being here. Thank you for considering supporting Blood Moon. And thank you for believing that femme stories - messy, surreal, unapologetic ones about periods and portals and pleasure - deserve to exist.
Love,
Kalee
Writer-Director, Blood Moon
We had a beautiful experience filming our interiors in Tacoma last year. Here's a glimpse at the team that made it happen. Please go to our Team page and learn more about these insanely talented humans.
---
*Proudly human-made, with a little help from Claude, an ethical AI assistant, for proofreading and editing text, as well as Canva to create graphics.
Questions? Thoughts? We love hearing from supporters. Reach out anytime at [email protected]
Wishlist
Use the WishList to Pledge cash and Loan items - or - Make a pledge by selecting an Incentive directly.
Pay Cast & Crew
Costs $5,880
Every department head - camera, sound, grip, hair and makeup - is compensated for their expertise.
Location
Costs $2,000
Our exterior shoot takes place on a private Hipcamp property in Washington State, chosen specifically for the landscape this story demands.
Lodging
Costs $1,770
We're housing our crew for two nights - because great work happens when people are taken care of.
Production Rentals
Costs $350
Camera and lens packages, lighting and grip equipment to visually heighten the surreal parallel universe.
Festival Submission Fees
Costs $1,500
Expanded festival submissions beyond our initial slate - getting Blood Moon in front of the programmers and audiences it deserves.
Direct link:
Share this update!
About This Team
KALEE QUIÑONES - Director
Kalee (she/they) is a Kansas-born filmmaker, screenwriter, and editor based in Los Angeles after 8 years in Seattle. She co-founded Seattle Film Society, served as a volunteer projectionist at the Grand Illusion Cinema for five years, and now works as Print Traffic Coordinator at Vidiots. Her recent editing credits include Unplugged (Quarter-Finalist, Ari Aster's Square Peg Social) and Tapestry Brewing (Best Dramedy Film, Atlanta Women's Film Festival). Blood Moon is her sophomore short as a writer-director, but she also recently directed music video Watts 103rd and ACLU WA advocacy video Relentless Together. She is a member of Film Independent, NALIP, and the Alliance of Women Directors.
GEENA PIETROMONACO - Scarlet
Geena is an actor, writer, and director based in Seattle. Her short film Impenetrable premiered at the Seattle International Film Festival in 2023. A film that later earned her the moniker “maybe Seattle’s Phoebe Waller-Bridge,” which, of course, meant the world to her. Recent acting credits include Drummer Wanted (short film, 2025), Puppy (short film, 2025), Devil’s Wine (feature film, 2024), and The Bench (short film, 2024).
JASMINE FLORA - Rose
Jasmine Flora (she/her) is a Seattle based actor with a B.F.A. in Musical Theatre from Cornish College of the Arts. Born and raised in Los Angeles, California, this showgirl grew up thinking ABBA’s song “Thank You For the Music” was about her. She believes in bringing playfulness and compassion to the rehearsal room and approaches theatre-making with Virgo levels of intensity and cares for people with the devotion you can only find in a big sister.
Flora is passionate about storytelling as a medium for community healing, song as a rebellious act, and dance as liberation. She was last seen in The Habit’s “A Very Die Hard Christmas” as Ginny, a role she had a week to rehearse before opening with the expectation she was off book and blocked from a video recording. She is also currently a company member with Dacha Theatre after spending last summer touring local parks with them with “The Grown Ups.”
You can also find Flora performing as her burlesque alter-ego Miss Lola California where she explores feminism and queerness through the lens of different pop culture archetypes. @JazzJazzFlora
HARLIE SULLIVAN - Luna + The Gold Figure
Harlie is a Seattle based actor and artist who majored in Musical Theater. She’s also Blood Moon's scenic artist - her immaculate paintings are used as Scarlet's work throughout the film, including the painting at the end of the sizzle.
D.J. WALKER - Apollo
D.J. Walker is a Pacific Northwest based filmmaker and actor specializing in dramedy narratives and socially charged stories. His most recent work, Gift Horse, continues his exploration of coming-of-age, family, and the messy beauty of growing up.
FRANCESCA BETANCOURT - Intimacy Coordinator
Francesca aka Cessa (she.her.hers) is an actor, intimacy director and coordinator, facilitator, and co-artistic producer of ART PARTY Residencies and Festival. She holds two BAs from Western Washington University in Theatre (acting, directing) and Sociology (social injustice, intimate relationships) and has trained in applied theatre at City University of New York. She has worked in theatre, film, and arts education in Ireland, India, the Philippines, New York, Florida, Wisconsin, Washington D.C., Maryland, and Washington. She is the artistic director for the storytelling event and podcast she is FIERCE, a founding member of HERON ensemble, and Pacific Northwest Theatrical Intimacy.
SETH HALLERAN - Director of Photography
Seth is a cinematographer with artistic roots in still film photography. He prioritizes bringing emotional authenticity to his images and has contributed images for Men I Trust and If A Tree Falls.
MATTHEW RUSH - Producer
Matt is a Seattle producer. He created and produced Slamdance selection Chickenboy and crewed on Prospect and The Paper Tigers. From lighting department roots to producing absurdist genre films, he brings a decade of technical and creative expertise to his projects.
*These are just a few of the talented collaborators bringing Blood Moon to life. More of our cast & crew list can be found at www.bloodmoonfilm.com.
Current Team
Incentives
- The Story
- Wishlist
- Updates
- The Team
- Community
Mission Statement
The Story
A queer painter's heartache and menstrual cycle lead her on a journey through a parallel universe where she discovers the ability to love herself.
As Scarlet struggles with visceral memories of her ex-girlfriend Rose, her menstrual cycle opens a portal to another world. She ventures through a forest where her inner demons pursue her as shadows in the trees. At a moonlit lake, she encounters the Gold Figure, a non-binary manifestation of her past, present, and future, and must choose between clinging to lost love or embracing herself.
Blood Moon is a film by queer and femme-identifying people about female sexuality, intimacy, and self-love.
Follow the journey: @blood.moon.film on Instagram
Follow, tag, comment, share. We can't wait to interact with you ❤️
In a cultural moment where LGBTQ+ rights and women's bodily autonomy face unprecedented attack, Blood Moon reclaims the narrative. This is a story where menstruation isn't shameful, it's a portal. Where shadows aren't monsters to defeat, they're parts of ourselves we can integrate. Where self-love isn't an Instagram quote, it's a hard-won journey through our own darkness.
When our bodies are legislated rather than celebrated, embracing them in all their messy, menstruating, desiring complexity, becomes an act of resistance. Blood Moon asks: How do we love ourselves again after heartbreak? How do we reconnect with our bodies when the world tells us they're wrong? Scarlet's surreal, sensual journey answers that question not with politics, but with pleasure, grief, and transformation.
Blood Moon's exterior world is tactile, elemental, and alive. Cinematographer Seth Halleran shoots with a naturalist eye. We'll film wide open fields at golden hour, moonlit water, and a forest canopy reaching towards the light. The color palette runs cool and earthy: deep blues, forest greens, the warm amber of skin in fading sun. Here's how we're bringing that vision to life:
- The camera stays close. Close to the body, to sensation, to the feeling of being alive inside a single moment. Inspired by the raw intimacy of American Honey (2016).
- The landscape becomes psychological. Like Morvern Callar (2002), our exteriors are a mirror for internal states, not just backdrop.
- Memory is visual. We draw from The Virgin Suicides (1999) and Tree of Life (2011) to explore the beauty of what's lost and what lingers.
- The world is femme and music-driven. The visual references in our crowdfunding video ground the film in a lineage of bold, female centered cinema. The Velvet Underground (2021), Under the Skin (2012), Annihilation (2018), Bright Star (2009), Melancholia (2008), and X (2022)
We don't come to you empty-handed. In February 2024, we filmed the intimate interior sequences you saw in our trailer. These scenes capture Scarlet's isolation and heartbreak, her cyclical pain, and the confined world she's trying to escape. Her bedroom, bathroom, paint studio, and kitchen. The response has been overwhelming.
Now we're ready to complete the vision with our Summer 2026 shoot - the parallel universe where Scarlet finally breaks free, plus a mixed media sequence at iconic Seattle haunts. We'll be in Index, WA, filming Scarlet in the forest and floating in the lake below the blood moon. Then, we’ll film and take 35mm film photographs at local spots Dick's Drive-In and The Whit's End to create a textured montage that establishes the passion and excitement of Scarlet and Rose’s romance before its inevitable demise.
This is the sci-fi, surreal heart of the film: forest sequences where her shadow chases her, the lake where she experiences a spiritual rebirth, and her encounter with the Gold Figure that represents her past, present, and future.
We also submitted a detailed application and were awarded fiscal sponsorship through Northwest Film Forum - one of the Pacific Northwest's most beloved independent film organizations. Their sponsorship means your donation is tax-deductible and directly supports the independent film ecosystem that makes Blood Moon possible.
February 2025 - Filmed interiors in Tacoma, Washington
March 2025 - March 2026 - Pre-Production for exteriors - location scouting, script refinement, VFX development, completed rough cut edit, Kalee moves to LA to further pursue her filmmaking career
April 2026 - Crowdfunding campaign launches (that's now!)
August 2026 (or summer 2027 if necessary) - Principal Photography - 3-day exterior shoot
August - October 2026 - Post-Production: editing, VFX, sound design, color grading, and scoring
Fall 2026 - Film festival submissions, including Outfest (Los Angeles), Frameline (San Francisco), Slamdance (Park City), Seattle Queer Film Festival, and Fantasia International Film Festival (Montreal)
2027 - Festival circuit and distribution
Every dollar you contribute goes directly to making Blood Moon. We've secured $2,050 in in-kind contributions from our collaborators, which means your support goes straight to the production itself.
Campaign Goal: $11,500
One line item that might surprise you is Lodging. Our exterior shoot takes place in Index, Washington, a remote, stunning location just over an hour from Seattle. Rather than send our cast and crew home late at night after long shoot days, we're keeping everyone on-site. It's how we protect the work and take care of our people.
Our ideal outcome! It will allow us to wrap production comfortably and move smoothly into post production and festivals.
- $13,000 - Production Complete Principal photography fully funded — cast, crew, locations, lodging, and all production expenses covered. Sam Ricci begins sound post-production.
- $14,500 - Post-Production Sound Full sound design, mix, and original score with sound designer Sam Ricci and composer Sasha Bolof.
- $15,500 - Festival Strategy Expanded festival submissions beyond our initial slate - getting Blood Moon in front of the programmers and audiences it deserves.
- $17,000 - Full Post-Production & Contingency Every post element fully funded, nothing deferred, nothing compromised. This is where we can make Blood Moon exactly what we've envisioned:
Blood Moon began three years ago from a place of real heartbreak and self-discovery. I was questioning my identity, and writing became a form of self-care - but as the story formed, I realized the message was bigger than me. Finding yourself again after a relationship ends is something almost everyone goes through, but nobody hands you a guide. I became fascinated with imagination and visualization as a path back to yourself and realized that path could be cinematic. We live in a world where women are punished for being sexual, a world that doesn’t give anyone permission to pause, look inward, and love what they see. I hope Blood Moon gives people permission to explore themselves and their sexuality more deeply, to sit with desire, grief, and transformation without apology.
This film exists because of our community. Through Seattle Film Society, The Grand Illusion Cinema, and SECS Fest, I found collaborators who understood what I was reaching for before I could fully articulate it myself. Blood Moon has been built slowly, carefully, and with tremendous love. I am endlessly grateful.
Thank you for being here. Thank you for considering supporting Blood Moon. And thank you for believing that femme stories - messy, surreal, unapologetic ones about periods and portals and pleasure - deserve to exist.
Love,
Kalee
Writer-Director, Blood Moon
We had a beautiful experience filming our interiors in Tacoma last year. Here's a glimpse at the team that made it happen. Please go to our Team page and learn more about these insanely talented humans.
---
*Proudly human-made, with a little help from Claude, an ethical AI assistant, for proofreading and editing text, as well as Canva to create graphics.
Questions? Thoughts? We love hearing from supporters. Reach out anytime at [email protected]
Wishlist
Use the WishList to Pledge cash and Loan items - or - Make a pledge by selecting an Incentive directly.
Pay Cast & Crew
Costs $5,880
Every department head - camera, sound, grip, hair and makeup - is compensated for their expertise.
Location
Costs $2,000
Our exterior shoot takes place on a private Hipcamp property in Washington State, chosen specifically for the landscape this story demands.
Lodging
Costs $1,770
We're housing our crew for two nights - because great work happens when people are taken care of.
Production Rentals
Costs $350
Camera and lens packages, lighting and grip equipment to visually heighten the surreal parallel universe.
Festival Submission Fees
Costs $1,500
Expanded festival submissions beyond our initial slate - getting Blood Moon in front of the programmers and audiences it deserves.
Direct link:
Share this update!
About This Team
KALEE QUIÑONES - Director
Kalee (she/they) is a Kansas-born filmmaker, screenwriter, and editor based in Los Angeles after 8 years in Seattle. She co-founded Seattle Film Society, served as a volunteer projectionist at the Grand Illusion Cinema for five years, and now works as Print Traffic Coordinator at Vidiots. Her recent editing credits include Unplugged (Quarter-Finalist, Ari Aster's Square Peg Social) and Tapestry Brewing (Best Dramedy Film, Atlanta Women's Film Festival). Blood Moon is her sophomore short as a writer-director, but she also recently directed music video Watts 103rd and ACLU WA advocacy video Relentless Together. She is a member of Film Independent, NALIP, and the Alliance of Women Directors.
GEENA PIETROMONACO - Scarlet
Geena is an actor, writer, and director based in Seattle. Her short film Impenetrable premiered at the Seattle International Film Festival in 2023. A film that later earned her the moniker “maybe Seattle’s Phoebe Waller-Bridge,” which, of course, meant the world to her. Recent acting credits include Drummer Wanted (short film, 2025), Puppy (short film, 2025), Devil’s Wine (feature film, 2024), and The Bench (short film, 2024).
JASMINE FLORA - Rose
Jasmine Flora (she/her) is a Seattle based actor with a B.F.A. in Musical Theatre from Cornish College of the Arts. Born and raised in Los Angeles, California, this showgirl grew up thinking ABBA’s song “Thank You For the Music” was about her. She believes in bringing playfulness and compassion to the rehearsal room and approaches theatre-making with Virgo levels of intensity and cares for people with the devotion you can only find in a big sister.
Flora is passionate about storytelling as a medium for community healing, song as a rebellious act, and dance as liberation. She was last seen in The Habit’s “A Very Die Hard Christmas” as Ginny, a role she had a week to rehearse before opening with the expectation she was off book and blocked from a video recording. She is also currently a company member with Dacha Theatre after spending last summer touring local parks with them with “The Grown Ups.”
You can also find Flora performing as her burlesque alter-ego Miss Lola California where she explores feminism and queerness through the lens of different pop culture archetypes. @JazzJazzFlora
HARLIE SULLIVAN - Luna + The Gold Figure
Harlie is a Seattle based actor and artist who majored in Musical Theater. She’s also Blood Moon's scenic artist - her immaculate paintings are used as Scarlet's work throughout the film, including the painting at the end of the sizzle.
D.J. WALKER - Apollo
D.J. Walker is a Pacific Northwest based filmmaker and actor specializing in dramedy narratives and socially charged stories. His most recent work, Gift Horse, continues his exploration of coming-of-age, family, and the messy beauty of growing up.
FRANCESCA BETANCOURT - Intimacy Coordinator
Francesca aka Cessa (she.her.hers) is an actor, intimacy director and coordinator, facilitator, and co-artistic producer of ART PARTY Residencies and Festival. She holds two BAs from Western Washington University in Theatre (acting, directing) and Sociology (social injustice, intimate relationships) and has trained in applied theatre at City University of New York. She has worked in theatre, film, and arts education in Ireland, India, the Philippines, New York, Florida, Wisconsin, Washington D.C., Maryland, and Washington. She is the artistic director for the storytelling event and podcast she is FIERCE, a founding member of HERON ensemble, and Pacific Northwest Theatrical Intimacy.
SETH HALLERAN - Director of Photography
Seth is a cinematographer with artistic roots in still film photography. He prioritizes bringing emotional authenticity to his images and has contributed images for Men I Trust and If A Tree Falls.
MATTHEW RUSH - Producer
Matt is a Seattle producer. He created and produced Slamdance selection Chickenboy and crewed on Prospect and The Paper Tigers. From lighting department roots to producing absurdist genre films, he brings a decade of technical and creative expertise to his projects.
*These are just a few of the talented collaborators bringing Blood Moon to life. More of our cast & crew list can be found at www.bloodmoonfilm.com.