All New People, LLC is dedicated to telling non-traditional love stories through film that focus on honesty, vulnerability and authentic communication. We believe in brining together diverse artists who share a vision of creating beautiful art that contributes to there being more love in the world.

 

The Story:

It is 1981 in Minneapolis, Minnesota and Joyce is 9 months pregnant. She is a hippie girl who writes poetry, throws clay, and has found deep, devotional love with a man who likes trolls. Harvey is a loveable hippie, Vietnam Vet and bee-keeper with a heart of gold. Harvey loves penny whistles, "Harold and Maude" and Joyce. On this day, he has invited Joyce to a tea party at his house where he worships her like the bohemian queen that she is. The only problem in this near-perfect love story- Joyce's husband.

 

Why This Story? Why Now?

All New People, LLC is Jessica's film collective that born out of the pandemic as a means of creating work for artists. Together with her co-producer, Timothy Huls (director and actor on "Chamomile Baby"), All New People has produced 4 short films in the past year and is the process of finishing a 5-episode television series called, "Haruto." Due to our commitment to creating innovative film and theatre projects and brining community together, this team has a track record of creating meaningful art projects that bring more love and beauty to the world. 

Jessica Risco and Timothy Huls on the set of "Haruto"

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"Chamomile Baby" has been adapted by Jessica from the short story by the same name written by Minnesota Poet Laureate, Dr. Joyce Sutphen.  Jessica read this story for the first nearly 20 years ago while she was studying with Joyce at Gustavus Adolphus College. The beauty and complexity of this love story, the tragedy of ships passing in the night and the captivating tone created by the language has stayed with Jessica this whole time. This idea to make this story into a film came to Jessica one morning last year. She woke up with the overwhelming feeling that "Chamomile Baby" had to be made into a film. She reached out to Joyce who gave her the story and here we are!

 

Dr. Joyce Sutphen

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We need more stories about love in our world- stories that show the reality and humanity of love. This is a non-traditional love story that caputres the capacity of the heart to love, coupled with the reality of life's choices.We don't always get to the be with the person we love. Marriages don't always last- and not for some dramatic reason other than we grow and change. This film aims to tell a beautiful love story in the most realistic, human way possible. Coming out of the pandemic, a time of extreme isolation, a story such as "Chamomile Baby" reminds us that human connection comes in many forms and that love is all around us. Harvey says, "...there's never too much love, you know?"

Additionally, because Joyce is a poet, the original story was written with the detail and grace of a poem. The environment is one of the main characters in the story. We want to experiement with form and try to capture the nuance and flow of poetry on camera.

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This short takes place in 1981 and the world and the tone is so important. In the story, Johanna describes Harvey's house filling with "delicious, golden light." We want to capture this feeling, as if the whole film was oozing with the honey that Harvey harvests from his bees. In addition, we want the film to feel like a period piece- a little blurry, muted and varied hippie colors with the location (aka Havery's hippie haven) being a character in itself. Below are images that capture the esssence of what we are going for.

 

          

 

The following films both take place in a similar era and capture the essence and tone of what we wish to accomplish with our film.

       

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Seed & Spark requires that at least 80% of the project be funded in order to make our film. We need to reach our goal in 30 days or we don't receive the funding and all your contributions go back back to you.

Funding for this campaign includes all the costs needed to make production happen. This includes paying for our crew, talent, equipment, locations, food, costumes, PPE, and more. We have secured an amazing team- several of the crew have worked with us on other projects, so we have a wonderful work flow together. 

We are poised to begin production in November: our crew is ready, locations secured, and art design- costumes, hair and make and set decoration/props- underway. We have the vision, gumption and logistics under control, we just need you to help us make it happen!

Our current goal of $15,000 will help us achieve production of our film. However, we're eager to let the world see our project and any supplemental funding could go a long way...we need $25,000 to finish the film completely (this is for post-production: editing, sound engineering, and film festival submission, etc.).

You will be updated throughout the campaign and production. Once we complete our 4-day shoot, we will gather the footage and begin to put it all together. You will be the first to see the final product! We also welcome any help during filmming if you'd like to support us- reach out for ways to get involved! And, please help us spread the word...follow me (IG: @jessica.l.risco) and Timothy (@timothyhuls) on social media and share posts about the film so we can start creating buzz.

Through community and individuals, we’re hoping to make this dream become a reality and YOU are our biggest source of support! Thank you!