CVNT
Los Angeles, California | Film Short
Drama, Comedy
Back a fearless, female-driven pilot about a broke single mom who starts selling her breast milk on the black market. CVNT is dark, funny, and unfiltered—exposing what survival looks like when the world gives mothers nothing.
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This campaign raised $18,478 for post-production. Follow the filmmaker to receive future updates on this project.
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Back a fearless, female-driven pilot about a broke single mom who starts selling her breast milk on the black market. CVNT is dark, funny, and unfiltered—exposing what survival looks like when the world gives mothers nothing.
About The Project
- The Story
- Wishlist
- Updates
- The Team
- Community
Mission Statement
The Story
ALL DONATIONS ARE TAX DEDUCTIBLE thanks to our fiscal sponsor Cinematography for Actors.
This story holds deep personal significance for me as it mirrors my current journey through life - being a single mom, navigating an ever-changing film industry, starting a brand new life in LA, all while fighting for my independence. All the things Marni goes through in this film are things that I have felt and experienced first hand. Yes, even being solicited by anonymous strangers online to sell fresh breast milk. The gig economy is weird.
I'm not the only one who's experienced these things. Every day countless single moms are fighting to stay afloat, or spending the last of their savings on their child's care, or taking a blind leap of faith hundreds of miles away - thousands if necessary - to secure a better life for themselves and their children. We do these things for love. We do it for survival. We do it because all we have left is one defiant act of optimism.
For me, writing this film has been one such act.
Why am I doing it? Because l'm living proof that change is possible. It's not always pretty, but in its own messy way it can be beautiful, electrifying, and deeply, darkly funny.
CVNT is a battle cry, a testimony, and a shit-talking session with your best friend. It lives in that cathartic moment when tears give way to laughter, and liberation feels possible again.
For our daughters.
- Nicole Higgins
Logline: A struggling single mother turns to a bizarre side hustle to make a better life for her baby daughter.
Tone: Emotionally Honest, Visually Adventurous, and Defiantly Optimistic
As a semi-autobiographical work, CVNT approaches its subject matter with the rawness and intimacy of lived experience. Re-building a life is hard, hilarious, and often surreal. Add motherhood to the mix, and it’s a roller coaster ride of laughter, tears, dreams, and fears – with no seat belt. Our film achieves this complexity by telling its story in two worlds: the exterior and the interior.
Marni’s outer world is defined by natural lighting, handheld camerawork, and real locations. It’s a hard and isolating world, but she manages to stay optimistic thanks to her fierce determination and some key human connections – her daughter Mila who keeps her grounded, and her best friend Lily who provides unconditional support and levity.
Marni’s inner world leans into a more stylized approach, blurring the lines between reality and imagination. When she’s riding high, we lean into flashy music video aesthetics. When faced with fear and anxiety, the mood becomes darker and more atmospheric.
By exploring these nuances with style, humor, and honesty our vision is to craft unique, fully-formed characters who provoke thought and inspire deeper empathy.
MARNI
Marni is a phoenix, fiercely fighting to rise from the ashes of trauma, addiction, and a manipulative ex. A single mother with big ambitions, she
is determined to build a stable, loving life for her daughter Mila while chasing her dream of writing for television. Her imagination is vivid and
explosive, spilling into the real world through playful daydreams, spiraling anxieties, and fantastical fantasies that play out onscreen. She is clever, resourceful, and funny, but constantly on the edge of unraveling. She is simultaneously lovable and exasperating, embodying a messy, unpolished honesty that makes her relatable and compelling. Even in her most unhinged moments, Marni’s intentions are good, and she is unendingly determined to carve out a life on her own terms. In her world, “No” is simply a challenge...a reason to say, “Watch me.”
MILKMAN
The Milkman is an awkward, socially clumsy Hollywood executive with eccentric, slightly autistic mannerisms that make him endearingly off-kilter yet deeply unsettling. He presents himself as a discreet buyer of breast milk, but beneath his goofy exterior lurks less innocent motivations. He secretly fantasizes about the milk “straight from the source,” though he has to settle for what Marni offers to avoid being outed. His nervous fidgeting, rambling explanations, and hyper-specific obsessions create moments of both danger and dark comedy.
LILY
Lily is vibrant, ever-evolving, and impossible to pin down. He embraces a gender fluid identity while using he/him pronouns. A longtime friend of Marni’s, he has been a steadfast presence since high school, with a sharp wit, spiritual curiosity, and a dramatic sense of style. He injects humor and color into Marni’s life, and thrives in spontaneity, acting first and thinking later, much like Marni herself.
JOY
Joy is a force of nature: blunt, opinionated, and unafraid to voice her judgments. She believes she’s protecting Marni but has no idea how
much pressure she applies with her inability to respect boundaries. Her worldview is shaped by the conviction that Mother knows best. Her emotional support rarely matches her delivery. Love, for her, comes out sideways as criticism, suspicion, manipulation, and control. She’s terrified of losing Marni to addiction again, so she overcorrects to the point of sabotage.
I'm telling this story now because there’s a cultural hunger for narratives that refuse to sanitize female ambition, rage, humor, and resilience. CVNT explores sobriety, money, sex, motherhood, and power through a lens that’s messy, funny, and deeply human... not inspirational, but honest. Marni’s unconventional side hustle and relentless self-reinvention reflect a generation of women forced to build their own safety nets while carrying the emotional labor of everyone around them. This series is my way of showing my daughter and anyone watching that survival can be creative, independence can be earned, and sometimes the only thing standing between you and collapse is grit, audacity, and a very cunty attitude.
June 2025: 4 Day Pilot Shoot!
October 2025: Locked Edit
Nov/Dec 2025: Film Festival Submissions
January 2026: Secured Fiscal Sponsorship with Cinematography for Actors
February 2026: Launch Fundraising Campaign
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You can check out our wishlist for a detailed description of the above categories. We are paying off post production costs and also ensuring that we have money to not only submit to festivals, but actually attend them in person and bring along the necessary marketing materials to draw a crowd!
- Back the campaign. Your dollars are doing important, sexy work.
- Follow us here. Receive updates, exclusives, and creative delusion.
- Spread the word. Tell everyone you’ve ever loved. And some people you haven’t. Seriously, every little bit helps us!
Wishlist
Use the WishList to Pledge cash and Loan items - or - Make a pledge by selecting an Incentive directly.
Post Production Sound Design & Surround 5.1 Mix
Costs $3,500
Crisp dialogue, punchy effects, and theater ready surround sound will make every moment hit just right — and we can’t do it without you.
Score
Costs $2,500
The original film score will give CVNT its mood, energy, and emotional heartbeat — from tense moments to darkly funny beats.
Professional Color Grade
Costs $3,000
We worked with world renowned colorist at Company 3 to ensure every frame was colored to perfection. Now we gotta pay off the credit card.
Music Licensing
Costs $1,750
Help us license “CVNT” by Sophie Hunter and other killer tracks so our pilot hits every scene with punch, humor, and a little extra attitude
Animation/Graphics/Credits
Costs $2,000
Custom graphics, vfx, and animations add style, humor, and visual flair to our pilot.
Mastering & DCP
Costs $1,000
We need funds for mastering and DCP creation so our pilot looks and sounds perfect for festivals and screenings.
Festival Submissions & Marketing
Costs $4,000
Posters, postcards, EPKs! Festivals are a bit of a numbers game and we didn't spend all that production money not to get seen by audiences.
Festival Travel & Accommodations
Costs $5,000
Attending festivals in person lets us create meaningful connections that can launch this project into the next phase, a full ass TV show.
Cash Pledge
Costs $0
Direct link:
Share this update!
About This Team
Nicole Higgins (Writer/Director/Actor) is a writer, director, and actor with a strong foundation in feature film and television production. She wrote, directed, and starred in the pilot CVNT, and previously wrote, directed, and starred in the short film There Will Be Womanly Wiles, as well as directing the music video Dance With You for artist Kie Melodic. Her background spans both performance and technical filmmaking, including years working as a Best Boy Grip on major studio productions such as Megalopolis, Civil War, Black Panther: Wakanda Forever, Captain America: Brave New World, and The Walking Dead. Drawing on experience from both sides of the camera, Nicole creates bold, character-driven work rooted in craft, empathy, and lived experience.
Jennifer Sherer (Producer) is an award winning producer and actress based in Los Angeles. Her love of filmmaking was borne from a highschool Spanish class, and her love of acting borne from an ingrained need for attention. She continued fostering her skills in front of and behind the camera while attending UCLA. She has experience producing features, tv pilots, and short films, many of which have won awards and found distribution. Her main passion is producing female focused stories directed by women and helping usher them into a successful festival run. When she’s not making movies, you can find her at a hockey game (Go Kings Go!), snuggling her husband and 3 cats, or scoping out her next good meal.
Dariia Petrova (Co-Producer): She is a self-taught filmmaker, photographer, and actor originally from Ukraine, with over six years of experience working both behind and in front of the camera. She began her career as a solo videographer and editor before expanding into crew roles across short films, commercials, and television, including work as a production assistant, gaffer, rigging grip, and video editor. Her film and TV credits include Civil War, Megalopolis, Ironheart, Will Trent, and Tulsa King. When not on set, she is training in acting and stunts or obsessively analyzing why certain films just look better than others.
Current Team
Incentives
- The Story
- Wishlist
- Updates
- The Team
- Community
Mission Statement
The Story
ALL DONATIONS ARE TAX DEDUCTIBLE thanks to our fiscal sponsor Cinematography for Actors.
This story holds deep personal significance for me as it mirrors my current journey through life - being a single mom, navigating an ever-changing film industry, starting a brand new life in LA, all while fighting for my independence. All the things Marni goes through in this film are things that I have felt and experienced first hand. Yes, even being solicited by anonymous strangers online to sell fresh breast milk. The gig economy is weird.
I'm not the only one who's experienced these things. Every day countless single moms are fighting to stay afloat, or spending the last of their savings on their child's care, or taking a blind leap of faith hundreds of miles away - thousands if necessary - to secure a better life for themselves and their children. We do these things for love. We do it for survival. We do it because all we have left is one defiant act of optimism.
For me, writing this film has been one such act.
Why am I doing it? Because l'm living proof that change is possible. It's not always pretty, but in its own messy way it can be beautiful, electrifying, and deeply, darkly funny.
CVNT is a battle cry, a testimony, and a shit-talking session with your best friend. It lives in that cathartic moment when tears give way to laughter, and liberation feels possible again.
For our daughters.
- Nicole Higgins
Logline: A struggling single mother turns to a bizarre side hustle to make a better life for her baby daughter.
Tone: Emotionally Honest, Visually Adventurous, and Defiantly Optimistic
As a semi-autobiographical work, CVNT approaches its subject matter with the rawness and intimacy of lived experience. Re-building a life is hard, hilarious, and often surreal. Add motherhood to the mix, and it’s a roller coaster ride of laughter, tears, dreams, and fears – with no seat belt. Our film achieves this complexity by telling its story in two worlds: the exterior and the interior.
Marni’s outer world is defined by natural lighting, handheld camerawork, and real locations. It’s a hard and isolating world, but she manages to stay optimistic thanks to her fierce determination and some key human connections – her daughter Mila who keeps her grounded, and her best friend Lily who provides unconditional support and levity.
Marni’s inner world leans into a more stylized approach, blurring the lines between reality and imagination. When she’s riding high, we lean into flashy music video aesthetics. When faced with fear and anxiety, the mood becomes darker and more atmospheric.
By exploring these nuances with style, humor, and honesty our vision is to craft unique, fully-formed characters who provoke thought and inspire deeper empathy.
MARNI
Marni is a phoenix, fiercely fighting to rise from the ashes of trauma, addiction, and a manipulative ex. A single mother with big ambitions, she
is determined to build a stable, loving life for her daughter Mila while chasing her dream of writing for television. Her imagination is vivid and
explosive, spilling into the real world through playful daydreams, spiraling anxieties, and fantastical fantasies that play out onscreen. She is clever, resourceful, and funny, but constantly on the edge of unraveling. She is simultaneously lovable and exasperating, embodying a messy, unpolished honesty that makes her relatable and compelling. Even in her most unhinged moments, Marni’s intentions are good, and she is unendingly determined to carve out a life on her own terms. In her world, “No” is simply a challenge...a reason to say, “Watch me.”
MILKMAN
The Milkman is an awkward, socially clumsy Hollywood executive with eccentric, slightly autistic mannerisms that make him endearingly off-kilter yet deeply unsettling. He presents himself as a discreet buyer of breast milk, but beneath his goofy exterior lurks less innocent motivations. He secretly fantasizes about the milk “straight from the source,” though he has to settle for what Marni offers to avoid being outed. His nervous fidgeting, rambling explanations, and hyper-specific obsessions create moments of both danger and dark comedy.
LILY
Lily is vibrant, ever-evolving, and impossible to pin down. He embraces a gender fluid identity while using he/him pronouns. A longtime friend of Marni’s, he has been a steadfast presence since high school, with a sharp wit, spiritual curiosity, and a dramatic sense of style. He injects humor and color into Marni’s life, and thrives in spontaneity, acting first and thinking later, much like Marni herself.
JOY
Joy is a force of nature: blunt, opinionated, and unafraid to voice her judgments. She believes she’s protecting Marni but has no idea how
much pressure she applies with her inability to respect boundaries. Her worldview is shaped by the conviction that Mother knows best. Her emotional support rarely matches her delivery. Love, for her, comes out sideways as criticism, suspicion, manipulation, and control. She’s terrified of losing Marni to addiction again, so she overcorrects to the point of sabotage.
I'm telling this story now because there’s a cultural hunger for narratives that refuse to sanitize female ambition, rage, humor, and resilience. CVNT explores sobriety, money, sex, motherhood, and power through a lens that’s messy, funny, and deeply human... not inspirational, but honest. Marni’s unconventional side hustle and relentless self-reinvention reflect a generation of women forced to build their own safety nets while carrying the emotional labor of everyone around them. This series is my way of showing my daughter and anyone watching that survival can be creative, independence can be earned, and sometimes the only thing standing between you and collapse is grit, audacity, and a very cunty attitude.
June 2025: 4 Day Pilot Shoot!
October 2025: Locked Edit
Nov/Dec 2025: Film Festival Submissions
January 2026: Secured Fiscal Sponsorship with Cinematography for Actors
February 2026: Launch Fundraising Campaign
You can check out our wishlist for a detailed description of the above categories. We are paying off post production costs and also ensuring that we have money to not only submit to festivals, but actually attend them in person and bring along the necessary marketing materials to draw a crowd!
- Back the campaign. Your dollars are doing important, sexy work.
- Follow us here. Receive updates, exclusives, and creative delusion.
- Spread the word. Tell everyone you’ve ever loved. And some people you haven’t. Seriously, every little bit helps us!
Wishlist
Use the WishList to Pledge cash and Loan items - or - Make a pledge by selecting an Incentive directly.
Post Production Sound Design & Surround 5.1 Mix
Costs $3,500
Crisp dialogue, punchy effects, and theater ready surround sound will make every moment hit just right — and we can’t do it without you.
Score
Costs $2,500
The original film score will give CVNT its mood, energy, and emotional heartbeat — from tense moments to darkly funny beats.
Professional Color Grade
Costs $3,000
We worked with world renowned colorist at Company 3 to ensure every frame was colored to perfection. Now we gotta pay off the credit card.
Music Licensing
Costs $1,750
Help us license “CVNT” by Sophie Hunter and other killer tracks so our pilot hits every scene with punch, humor, and a little extra attitude
Animation/Graphics/Credits
Costs $2,000
Custom graphics, vfx, and animations add style, humor, and visual flair to our pilot.
Mastering & DCP
Costs $1,000
We need funds for mastering and DCP creation so our pilot looks and sounds perfect for festivals and screenings.
Festival Submissions & Marketing
Costs $4,000
Posters, postcards, EPKs! Festivals are a bit of a numbers game and we didn't spend all that production money not to get seen by audiences.
Festival Travel & Accommodations
Costs $5,000
Attending festivals in person lets us create meaningful connections that can launch this project into the next phase, a full ass TV show.
Cash Pledge
Costs $0
Direct link:
Share this update!
About This Team
Nicole Higgins (Writer/Director/Actor) is a writer, director, and actor with a strong foundation in feature film and television production. She wrote, directed, and starred in the pilot CVNT, and previously wrote, directed, and starred in the short film There Will Be Womanly Wiles, as well as directing the music video Dance With You for artist Kie Melodic. Her background spans both performance and technical filmmaking, including years working as a Best Boy Grip on major studio productions such as Megalopolis, Civil War, Black Panther: Wakanda Forever, Captain America: Brave New World, and The Walking Dead. Drawing on experience from both sides of the camera, Nicole creates bold, character-driven work rooted in craft, empathy, and lived experience.
Jennifer Sherer (Producer) is an award winning producer and actress based in Los Angeles. Her love of filmmaking was borne from a highschool Spanish class, and her love of acting borne from an ingrained need for attention. She continued fostering her skills in front of and behind the camera while attending UCLA. She has experience producing features, tv pilots, and short films, many of which have won awards and found distribution. Her main passion is producing female focused stories directed by women and helping usher them into a successful festival run. When she’s not making movies, you can find her at a hockey game (Go Kings Go!), snuggling her husband and 3 cats, or scoping out her next good meal.
Dariia Petrova (Co-Producer): She is a self-taught filmmaker, photographer, and actor originally from Ukraine, with over six years of experience working both behind and in front of the camera. She began her career as a solo videographer and editor before expanding into crew roles across short films, commercials, and television, including work as a production assistant, gaffer, rigging grip, and video editor. Her film and TV credits include Civil War, Megalopolis, Ironheart, Will Trent, and Tulsa King. When not on set, she is training in acting and stunts or obsessively analyzing why certain films just look better than others.