Dead Son
New York City, New York | Film Short
Drama, LGBTQ
Susan lets her desires guide her, for once.
Dead Son
New York City, New York | Film Short
Drama, LGBTQ
27 supporters | followers
Enter the amount you would like to pledge
$4,635
Goal: $9,522 for production
Susan lets her desires guide her, for once.
About The Project
- The Story
- Wishlist
- Updates
- The Team
- Community
Mission Statement
The Story
Susan is lost in grief after her adult son’s suicide. When she’s going through his things, she finds a sex tape he made. She watches it and begins to feel a strong attraction to his boyfriend — who looks a lot like her husband. This is a bumpy, messy drama that, in the end, leads to something like healing for her.
Why I want to tell this story
This film is urgent for me. It plays into the one question I’m fixated on exploring: What happens when we let desire guide us?
When I was growing up gay, I was convinced my desires were bad. There’s something liberating to me to imagine worlds, in my films, where characters listen to their desires with reverence. That’s my goal for Susan — and for myself. It’s not always an easy journey, but it’s one worth exploring.
My personal experiences with grief have been complicated to process. This story is also a way of grappling with that: the constellation of alienation, numbness, depression, joy, and connection that lights up all at once when you lose someone. I’m trying to imagine how that cluttered emotional landscape can result in something positive: bringing Susan and her husband, Mark, closer together.
About me (Max Wren - Writer/Director)
I am a filmmaker, writer, and producer based in Brooklyn, NY. My work focuses on the terror of intimacy — how scary it can be to reveal our true selves to the people we love. My biggest inspirations come from mass media — soap operas, adult films, romance novels, and grindhouse horror. I think it’s worth considering what the content we’re most ashamed to consume says about our true desires.
Before finding my way to film, I worked as a radio, podcast, and social media producer. I helped make shows for WCBS 880, WNYC, Gimlet Media, Spotify, and Elevate Labs. My short, JOCK, premiered at the 2026 Nitehawk Shorts Festival. My writing work has won the Mecklin Prize in Creative Nonfiction and the Eleanor Frost Playwriting Contest and has been featured in the Strafford Reading Series, the Arizona Underground Film Festival, and Indie Fest LA.
Our plan
This is my thesis for my MFA at Feirstein Graduate School of Cinema (Brooklyn College). We are filming August 14th -19th in New York City. A lot of the moving pieces for the production are already in place: I’ve got a script I love, we have most of our gear, and we’ve assembled all key crew members. I’m working with a great core team that has already collaborated on a dozen short films together, including my past shorts, Tooth, Jock, and Best Man.
Our budget
Even with the great resources provided by Brooklyn College, we'll require real support to bring this movie to life. Our minimum budget is $9,522. Most of this money will go directly to paying for our cast, locations, meals, and transportation.
Thank you for your support!
Wishlist
Use the WishList to Pledge cash and Loan items - or - Make a pledge by selecting an Incentive directly.
Intimacy Coordinator
Costs $300
I'm so excited to work with a trained Intimacy Coordinator on this very intimate story.
Cast
Costs $4,416
We're a SAG production. This will help us pay our cast their daily rate, 10% agency fee, and 21% health and pension.
Locations and Transport
Costs $1,393
This will help us secure all our locations and rent a van for equipment transport.
Production Design & Production Supplies
Costs $250
This will help us get props and expendables.
Direct link:
Share this update!
About This Team
Max Wren - Writer/Director @max__wren
Max Wren is a filmmaker, writer, and producer based in Brooklyn, NY. His work focuses on the terror of intimacy — how scary it can be to reveal our true selves to the people we love. His biggest inspirations come from mass media — soap operas, gay p*rn, romance novels, and grindhouse horror. He thinks it’s worth considering what the content we’re most ashamed to consume says about our true desires. Before finding his way to film, he worked as a radio, podcast, and social media producer. He helped make shows for WCBS 880, WNYC, Gimlet Media, Spotify, and Elevate Labs. His short, JOCK, premiered at the 2026 Nitehawk Shorts Festival. His writing work has won the Mecklin Prize in Creative Nonfiction and the Eleanor Frost Playwriting Contest and has been featured in the Strafford Reading Series, the Arizona Underground Film Festival, and Indie Fest LA.
Emina Ghajizai - Producer
Emina Ghajizai is a Brooklyn based filmmaker working as a writer, director and producer. Her films explore gender, state and border violence in our daily lives and on the psyche of marginalized communities. Before moving to New York, she curated for the South Asian Film Festival of Montreal and worked in production at an animation and VFX studio in the feature animation division assisting on shows like ‘Iwaju’, ‘Hitpig’ and upcoming ‘Animal Farm’ by Andy Serkis. She is a recent fellow at Rickshaw Film’s Writer’s Room: Shorts and a MFA candidate at Feirstein Graduate School of Cinema.
Abhishek Mehra - Producer
Abhishek Mehra is a New York based writer, director, and producer, originally from New Delhi. He gravitates towards films that explore the messiness of the human condition with warmth and sentimentality. He is pursuing his MFA at Brooklyn College. Abhishek is also interested in exploring themes of queerness and monstrosity, through fables, farce, satire, and genre filmmaking.
GG Hawkins - Executive Producer
GG Hawkins is a writer, director, and podcaster who tells stories that explore the dark side of the female experience and millennial ennui. Her feature directorial debut, I Really Love My Husband, premiered at SXSW in 2025, won the First-Time Director Award at the Chattanooga Film Festival, and had a limited US theatrical release in September ahead of its November digital debut, and an international theatrical run in January 2026. She directed the short Yes, Daddy—a spiritual prequel to the feature—which has garnered over 8 million views on YouTube, and wrote and directed G.U.F., an episode of You Feeling This?, which premiered at Tribeca in 2023. She is a fellow of the Film Independent Episodic Lab and the Moonshot Initiative Pilot Accelerator, and her feature In Bed With Me was selected for the 2025 Gotham Project Market.
Brandon Carmona - Director of Photography
Brandon Carmona is Brooklyn based cinematographer, and current MFA candidate for Directing and Cinematography at Feirstein Graduate School of Cinema. They are known for a natural expressionistic approach as seen in the upcoming short film “Tooth.” Other works include “String Cheese” (selected at Los Angeles Independent Film Festival), and “Orange Goodbye” (Best Experimental FIlm Award at Annual SF State Showcase). They have experience working with analog and digital formats spanning across narrative story and experimental documentary.
Karina Campbell - Production Designer
Karina Campbell’s background in dance and choreography largely motivates her work in film. She thinks of herself as a collage artist, whether it be paper collage, video essays, or set design. Her films often explore queer and unusual relationships between each other and ourselves. Karina thinks of production design as a spatial collage and choreography of items, and is passionate about staging the made-up worlds of movie characters.
Current Team
Incentives
- The Story
- Wishlist
- Updates
- The Team
- Community
Mission Statement
The Story
Susan is lost in grief after her adult son’s suicide. When she’s going through his things, she finds a sex tape he made. She watches it and begins to feel a strong attraction to his boyfriend — who looks a lot like her husband. This is a bumpy, messy drama that, in the end, leads to something like healing for her.
Why I want to tell this story
This film is urgent for me. It plays into the one question I’m fixated on exploring: What happens when we let desire guide us?
When I was growing up gay, I was convinced my desires were bad. There’s something liberating to me to imagine worlds, in my films, where characters listen to their desires with reverence. That’s my goal for Susan — and for myself. It’s not always an easy journey, but it’s one worth exploring.
My personal experiences with grief have been complicated to process. This story is also a way of grappling with that: the constellation of alienation, numbness, depression, joy, and connection that lights up all at once when you lose someone. I’m trying to imagine how that cluttered emotional landscape can result in something positive: bringing Susan and her husband, Mark, closer together.
About me (Max Wren - Writer/Director)
I am a filmmaker, writer, and producer based in Brooklyn, NY. My work focuses on the terror of intimacy — how scary it can be to reveal our true selves to the people we love. My biggest inspirations come from mass media — soap operas, adult films, romance novels, and grindhouse horror. I think it’s worth considering what the content we’re most ashamed to consume says about our true desires.
Before finding my way to film, I worked as a radio, podcast, and social media producer. I helped make shows for WCBS 880, WNYC, Gimlet Media, Spotify, and Elevate Labs. My short, JOCK, premiered at the 2026 Nitehawk Shorts Festival. My writing work has won the Mecklin Prize in Creative Nonfiction and the Eleanor Frost Playwriting Contest and has been featured in the Strafford Reading Series, the Arizona Underground Film Festival, and Indie Fest LA.
Our plan
This is my thesis for my MFA at Feirstein Graduate School of Cinema (Brooklyn College). We are filming August 14th -19th in New York City. A lot of the moving pieces for the production are already in place: I’ve got a script I love, we have most of our gear, and we’ve assembled all key crew members. I’m working with a great core team that has already collaborated on a dozen short films together, including my past shorts, Tooth, Jock, and Best Man.
Our budget
Even with the great resources provided by Brooklyn College, we'll require real support to bring this movie to life. Our minimum budget is $9,522. Most of this money will go directly to paying for our cast, locations, meals, and transportation.
Thank you for your support!
Wishlist
Use the WishList to Pledge cash and Loan items - or - Make a pledge by selecting an Incentive directly.
Intimacy Coordinator
Costs $300
I'm so excited to work with a trained Intimacy Coordinator on this very intimate story.
Cast
Costs $4,416
We're a SAG production. This will help us pay our cast their daily rate, 10% agency fee, and 21% health and pension.
Locations and Transport
Costs $1,393
This will help us secure all our locations and rent a van for equipment transport.
Production Design & Production Supplies
Costs $250
This will help us get props and expendables.
Direct link:
Share this update!
About This Team
Max Wren - Writer/Director @max__wren
Max Wren is a filmmaker, writer, and producer based in Brooklyn, NY. His work focuses on the terror of intimacy — how scary it can be to reveal our true selves to the people we love. His biggest inspirations come from mass media — soap operas, gay p*rn, romance novels, and grindhouse horror. He thinks it’s worth considering what the content we’re most ashamed to consume says about our true desires. Before finding his way to film, he worked as a radio, podcast, and social media producer. He helped make shows for WCBS 880, WNYC, Gimlet Media, Spotify, and Elevate Labs. His short, JOCK, premiered at the 2026 Nitehawk Shorts Festival. His writing work has won the Mecklin Prize in Creative Nonfiction and the Eleanor Frost Playwriting Contest and has been featured in the Strafford Reading Series, the Arizona Underground Film Festival, and Indie Fest LA.
Emina Ghajizai - Producer
Emina Ghajizai is a Brooklyn based filmmaker working as a writer, director and producer. Her films explore gender, state and border violence in our daily lives and on the psyche of marginalized communities. Before moving to New York, she curated for the South Asian Film Festival of Montreal and worked in production at an animation and VFX studio in the feature animation division assisting on shows like ‘Iwaju’, ‘Hitpig’ and upcoming ‘Animal Farm’ by Andy Serkis. She is a recent fellow at Rickshaw Film’s Writer’s Room: Shorts and a MFA candidate at Feirstein Graduate School of Cinema.
Abhishek Mehra - Producer
Abhishek Mehra is a New York based writer, director, and producer, originally from New Delhi. He gravitates towards films that explore the messiness of the human condition with warmth and sentimentality. He is pursuing his MFA at Brooklyn College. Abhishek is also interested in exploring themes of queerness and monstrosity, through fables, farce, satire, and genre filmmaking.
GG Hawkins - Executive Producer
GG Hawkins is a writer, director, and podcaster who tells stories that explore the dark side of the female experience and millennial ennui. Her feature directorial debut, I Really Love My Husband, premiered at SXSW in 2025, won the First-Time Director Award at the Chattanooga Film Festival, and had a limited US theatrical release in September ahead of its November digital debut, and an international theatrical run in January 2026. She directed the short Yes, Daddy—a spiritual prequel to the feature—which has garnered over 8 million views on YouTube, and wrote and directed G.U.F., an episode of You Feeling This?, which premiered at Tribeca in 2023. She is a fellow of the Film Independent Episodic Lab and the Moonshot Initiative Pilot Accelerator, and her feature In Bed With Me was selected for the 2025 Gotham Project Market.
Brandon Carmona - Director of Photography
Brandon Carmona is Brooklyn based cinematographer, and current MFA candidate for Directing and Cinematography at Feirstein Graduate School of Cinema. They are known for a natural expressionistic approach as seen in the upcoming short film “Tooth.” Other works include “String Cheese” (selected at Los Angeles Independent Film Festival), and “Orange Goodbye” (Best Experimental FIlm Award at Annual SF State Showcase). They have experience working with analog and digital formats spanning across narrative story and experimental documentary.
Karina Campbell - Production Designer
Karina Campbell’s background in dance and choreography largely motivates her work in film. She thinks of herself as a collage artist, whether it be paper collage, video essays, or set design. Her films often explore queer and unusual relationships between each other and ourselves. Karina thinks of production design as a spatial collage and choreography of items, and is passionate about staging the made-up worlds of movie characters.