BRING YOUR OWN FORKS

By Isobel Obrecht

Bring Your Own Forks Promotional Material

LOGLINE

Fed up with her isolation, a woman posts a Craigslist ad that brings four strangers together for a bizarre encounter with a side of pie.

THE STORY

"Bring Your Own Forks" is about a lonely woman who makes a post on Craigslist asking people to meet her in the Costco parking lot and share a giant pie with her. As she moves through her surreal and hostile world waiting for the moment she meets up with these strangers, she meets a fellow Costco customer with shopping cart road rage and a runaway bride.

WILL YOU SPLIT A COSTCO PIE WITH ME?

I really want to try the Costco peanut butter chocolate pie but

it's 4.5 lbs and I hear it's very dense. I can't eat it by myself,

so I am looking for 3-4 people to meet me in the parking lot of

Costco and split it with me. We will have to be fast since it's 118

degrees outside. I'll buy the pie but you must provide your own

plate and fork.

Based on this actual Craigslist post that began circulating various platforms as a niche meme at least as far back as 20 years ago. I found myself so charmed by this mystery person, and I was inspired by imagining who that person might be. The first version of "Bring Your Own Forks" grew out of this exercise in imagination. There were other inspirations too.

The works of David Lynch:

Twin Peaks (2017)

Juzo Itami's Tampopo:

Tampopo (1985)

...and this article I read in The Cut titled "The Grooms Smashing Wedding Cake in Their Brides' Faces." This article felt thematically linked to these ideas I was exploring of food and consumption as a metaphor for connection, desire, and disillusionment. This project is for anyone who is interested in surreal storytelling..

WHY THIS STORY AND WHY IT IS IMPORTANT?

At its sickly sweet core, “Bring Your Own Forks” is about the epidemic of loneliness. We all have felt lonely at one point or another in our lives. The growing team behind this project are all artists who are seeing opportunities disappear, threats to the very existence of creative jobs grow, and all of whom believe in the force of making art together as an antidote to the loneliness of our time. Capitalistic control of social technology and shrinking third spaces leave us with fewer and fewer ways to connect. Our short film takes a magnifying glass to a character who is as overlooked in cinema as they are in real life. This is a story for people who feel lonely and out of place.

Part of why I was so inspired to write this story is my own difficulties with food and the way that has affected my ability to connect with people. I struggle with medical issues for most of my life that make digesting food and eating regularly really difficult for me. I think sharing food is one of the most primal ways that we connect with other people and more and more people like me are having a hard time accessing food or eating well and I think this impulse to just reach out into the void and ask for a community to share a pie with is more relatable than ever. This project has also been an exercise in reaching out into the void for community and support for myself and my creative partners and the support we have already found for this project has been so lovely. We are confident that this story will find its audience of people looking for surreal storytelling about searching for belonging.

THE CHARACTERS

LONELY HEART

She yearns for connection. She is a hoarder, her space warm and cluttered but empty of anyone aside from her. She finds people hard to talk to, not because she dislikes people, but because most people seem to dislike her. She is brave.

THE BRIDE

She is a Lynchian vision covered in cake and blood. She connects with LONELY HEART because they are both on the same journey seeking belonging. They both have romantic visions of belonging that are ultimately disappointing. THE BRIDE escapes the story and finds her belonging elsewhere, foreshadowing LONELY HEART’s own experience of disappointment and resilience.

Women in Love (1965)

THE STRANGERS

Collaboratively working with the actors to develop the look and feel of each one of these strangers. One is sleek and corporate, beautiful and soulless. Two is tired and lost, hungry and desperate. Three is violent and angry. Four is raucous and friendly, loud to fill the silence. They all answered the ad for their own reasons. They all are showing vulnerability by coming to this parking lot, but they come anyway.

THE LOOK

The cinematography, at first static to mirror the main character's stagnant life, will become increasingly surreal, dreamlike, and visceral as the story progresses. A cold, harsh world contrasted with the warm and worn interiors of our main character’s space. An analog-like quality but captured with digital, drawing inspiration from the character’s rejection of contemporary life (or more accurately, its rejection of her) and the nostalgia for a pre-internet world.

High-Rise (2015)

THEMES

There is little dialogue as the characters communicate with each other through expressions and movement. The physicality and the way the characters interact with their environments emphasize this theme of reaching for connection. Personifying inanimate objects and reaching for touch and non-verbal communication where words fail.

TONE

Slice of life comedy meets the surreal.

The tone is slightly absurd and whimsical. The world around our main character is bright and teeming with life, but the people who surround the protagonist are apathetic and disinterested. As the film progresses, the world becomes increasingly strange and disorienting. Taking bites from films like Beau is Afraid, Jacque Tati's Playtime, Dancer in the Dark, and The Tuba Thieves.

THE PROCESS

The development of this project started with a short story written on the subway. Then a chance meeting at a barbecue, the film's producer Ashe and I instantly connected over this character's experience of isolation. And it seemed like other people connected with this story as well because in the first few months of development we were able to raise over $6,500 dollars through a first time director grant through Wavelength Productions and a small crowdfunding campaign. The proof was in the pudding, or more accurately, the pie. This was a story that needed to be told.

Deadline Article

Wavelength Grant Announcement

In order to create this highly stylized world to the best of our ability, we are raising an additional $8k. Your support will go directly to our talented cast & crew, production design, costuming, location, transportation, and top of the line equipment.

If we exceed our goal, that would allow us to build a surrealist grocery store to further the world building and atmosphere of the project. Any money not used for production design would be spent paying our crew and cast more for their labor, and go into our post-production, and distribution funding.

FISCAL SPONSORSHIP:

This project is sponsored by 501(c)3 Film Independent.

what does that mean for you?

Any and all monetary donations you make will give you a tax benefit like donating to charity!

Here is the link to our fiscal sponsorship page: https://www.filmindependent.org/sponsored-projects/bring-your-own-forks/

OTHER WAYS TO HELP:

-If you would like to offer in kind services and are located in the New York City area, please reach out to us a  [email protected].

We would love to collaborate!

- Follow our campaign. Every bit of attention matters! Even if you aren't in a position to donate, following the project boots our platform and is a big help!

- Share our campaign on social media. If this project doesn't resonate with you, maybe it does with someone else!

Every dollar, share, like, comment, donation and encouraging word counts. Thank you for your support, time, and attention.

Let's make a movie.