Death & Taxes
Chester, Pennsylvania | Film Short
Crime, Satire
Death & Taxes focuses its lens on Chester PA- a small Black city in the midst of a violent state of emergency. Through a layered analysis of the absurdity of being numb to death, our lead is a hyperbole of this phenomenon-a mortician’s assistant working overtime to pay for his brothers funeral.
Death & Taxes
Chester, Pennsylvania | Film Short
Crime, Satire
1 Campaigns | California, United States
Green Light
This campaign raised $10,500 for production. Follow the filmmaker to receive future updates on this project.
39 supporters | followers
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Death & Taxes focuses its lens on Chester PA- a small Black city in the midst of a violent state of emergency. Through a layered analysis of the absurdity of being numb to death, our lead is a hyperbole of this phenomenon-a mortician’s assistant working overtime to pay for his brothers funeral.
About The Project
- The Story
- Wishlist
- Updates
- The Team
- Community
Mission Statement
The Story
Death and family loss should cause us to pause, grieve and reflect, but numbness is the normality when consistent gun violence causes constant, senseless deaths amidst a war zone. This project will make you rethink the normalcy of gun violence in our country.
Death and Taxes is the story of grief and societal numbness. The film uses the small city of Chester, PA, to examine a much larger phenomenon; we live in a society where murder is something we watch in movies as entertainment and see on the news as something to click past. The detachment to Death for onlookers of the black community has become mundane and banal as paying taxes. In this film, I wanted to examine the different coping mechanisms families use for dealing with Death; funerals are abrupt and expensive when they can't afford the time to grieve appropriately.
On average, a funeral in Pennsylvania costs $10,805; for a family already struggling financially, a funeral expense can curse them to a lifetime of poverty. I wanted to use the character Mort as a vehicle to explore this voyeuristic perspective; To survive, Mort is forced to remove himself from processing his brother's Death; he is our eyes into this experience, representing society's propensity for distance and numbness to inner-city Death.
The population of Chester, PA, is primarily Black Americans; the town was once a thriving industrial hub in the East Coast. The town's white population flew the coop after the deindustrialization and integration period, leaving behind a city without resources. 2010 the violent crime rate rose to 1,359, whereas the US National Average was 223.2. That same year, after four murders were reported in a single week, the latter being a 2-year-old Child, Chester, PA, declared a state of emergency. The town is now a food desert, with underfunded schools plagued with violence. As a result, from 2011 - 2016, Chester, PA, became one of the top 3 cities in murder per capita in the entire country.
Characters
Mort
Our Silent protagonist, a mortician's assistant and the second youngest Latimore brother, goes through life passively, following behind his two dynamic brothers. Mort is our eyes into Chester.
Collinsworth
Owner of Collinsworth funeral home and Mort's boss, who comes from a long line of Funeral owners, Is a fish out of water that owns the land as one of the few white business owners in a predominantly black town.
Will
The oldest Latimore brother, a returning citizen with a new lease on life, looking to build the community he once took for granted. The Death of his brother places him at a crossroads, as he drowns himself in community work to deal with the grief.
Lonnie
The Second oldest, Latimore is hell-bent on revenge; the Death of his youngest brother has left Lonnie in a grieving rage.
Ms. Latimore
The mother of the Latimore brothers has had an entire life in Chester and is conditioned to loss. She is a faithful but feisty woman, resourceful and resilient as the spirit of Chester.
Everybody Grieves Different
There is no right way to deal with the Death of a loved one. The way one grieves can be in direct conflict with the way someone else close to them will.
Numbness to Violence
Society has become numb to violence; I can remember the first time I ever saw someone get shot; it was an out-of-body experience that forced me to contemplate my mortality. Now I can see someone get shot, stabbed, or assaulted daily on my timeline like many other Americans, and not bat an eye. Violence has become a spectator's sport to some and mundane to others.
Can't afford to grieve
The financial burden of paying for a loved one's funeral doesn't give a struggling family the room to grieve properly; in this system, you always have to prioritize capital and financial responsibility over mental health.
Death & Taxes is a quiet film, filled with distant voyeuristic wide's, using Mort as the eyes into this small black community.
The shots are mostly Still and static to create a numb unsettling effect. The film attempts to capture Death and violence as something mundane and regular, playing up on the absurdity.
Director's Statement
When I was nine years old, my Father became a pastor at a church next to the Benet Projects in Chester, PA. Very early in his tenure at Bethany, he noticed the small six-mile city had many structural and socioeconomic issues that manifested in the form of gun violence. Knowing that was an issue, much of the work outside the Church became funerals, grief counseling, and supporting organizations dealing with the problems head-on. I saw firsthand how doing this work impacted my Father and how numb he had to be to do this work properly. I felt the numbness required to operate in this field, passed on to me as I got older and dealt with the Death of friends and family, each funeral becoming more detached. That feeling came to a head for me during COVID when I noticed the whole world grieving; It made me think critically about the different methods people use to grieve. I compared the numbness required to work in a field dealing with Death to the numbness people adopted to get by, financially and socially. Death & Taxes was inspired by this notion, which led me to highlight the people of Chester who deal with grief day-to-day, capturing the absurdity of being in a constant state of numbness as life goes on around you while dealing with the burden of paying for an unexpected death in the family.
The Team
BTS
Want to get involved?
Death & Taxes not only aims to bring attention to the dark reality within the city of Chester but also to help give the city resources to help overcome these issues.
Death & Taxes has partnered with Safe Corridors, a program that helps combat violence during peak times in Chester. The program takes volunteers from within the community to form a safe path for children to safely get to and from school each day.
https://www.chestercity.com/chester-community-safe-corridors
Thank you
If this story speaks to you, please join us and support this project! We appreciate your time and consideration!
Other ways to support if you can't donate: please help us get closer to our goal by sending the video to at least five of your friends and sharing it on social media platforms to help spread the word!
Please contact [email protected] if you're interested in being more directly involved!
Wishlist
Use the WishList to Pledge cash and Loan items - or - Make a pledge by selecting an Incentive directly.
Director of Photography
Costs $2,500
Alejandro Miyashiro an award-winning Director of Photography. https://alejandromiyashiro.com/
Festival
Costs $2,500
Paying for the cost of submission fees and transportation to festivals
Gear
Costs $2,000
Lighting Rental Equipment
Makeup
Costs $1,000
Makeup artist for dead bodies and blood. Including equipment
Post
Costs $2,500
Post team consists of an Editor, VFX, Colorist, and Sound designer.
Permits
Costs $1,500
To shoot legally at all locations.
Costume
Costs $1,000
Pay for the costumes and costume designer; this film is set in 2011, specificity is key.
Cash Pledge
Costs $0
Direct link:
Share this update!
About This Team
Matthew Morris(Director/Writer/producer) Hailing from Philadelphia, PA, Matthew spent the beginning of his career glued to the computer learning all assets of creating a film from youtube videos. After graduating from the prestigious Academy of Youtube, Matthew began his trial by fire, spending the last ten years making films. After years of being self-taught, Matthew decided to fly across the country to California to receive his MFA from Loyola Marymount Film School. Here he would continue to strive to hone his skills, placing in numerous competitions and festivals and becoming a member of the Oscars Academy Gold program.
Andre J Ferguson(Writer/Producer) is currently a producer on the hit Starz series, Power book:II Ghost. Andre was raised in the inner city of Jamaica Queens, NY. Andre attended Five Towns College in Long Island, NY. After completing only one semester, Andre made a decision to begin writing screeplays and submitted his script to show runner, Courtney Kemp which led him to being hired as a staff writer for the hit series Power.
Alitl Luna Flores(Photographer/Cinamatographer/Producer) is a photographer, videographer, and creative artist. Over the past ten years, Alitl has helped enhance countless artists, businesses, and brands' platforms. The passion and curiosity Alitl has for this craft pushes him to constantly step out of his comfort zone to figure out new creative ways to bring life to images that connect and move people.
Alejandro Miyashiro(DP) was born and raised in San Diego, CA where he grew up developing photography skills and later earned a Bachelor of Science degree in Film Production at San Diego State University. Alejandro has shot narrative films that have screened in the U.S. and internationally; including Director, Jamie Dack's short film, Palm Trees and Power Lines, which premiered at the Festival de Cannes in 2018. Additionally, he was the Director of Photography for Rashad Frett’s short film, K.I.N.G., for which Frett received a Director's Guild of America (DGA) Best Student Film Award. Alejandro received his MFA from New York University's Graduate Film Program, and is currently based in Brooklyn, NY.
Krushan(Editor) is an award-winning Filmmaker and Editor based in Los Angeles, CA. Coming from India, he brings an extensive seven-year-long experience in the Advertising World as a sole successful proprietor of his Advertising Agency, working with Bollywood celebrities and the best of the film and fashion industry artists. His first-ever film was an animated short, nominated for the Viewers Choice Awards at the 24 FPS International Animation Awards 2012, Mumbai. Krushan's latest film, Resurgence, has premiered at multiple film festivals, including the Oscar®/Academy Award® qualifying St. Louis International Film Festival, and is also a winner at the Fort Lauderdale International Film Festival and the Utah Film Festival.
Risa Desilva(Marketing) Learning and training solutions specialist with a focus on using blended learning models and integrative technology toolsto foster engagement that closes skill and content gapsin both young and adult learners. Veteran leadership and staff development program managerwith extensive curriculum design, alignment, and implementation experience. Collaborative, data-driven, goals oriented, and professional.
Current Team
Incentives
- The Story
- Wishlist
- Updates
- The Team
- Community
Mission Statement
The Story
Death and family loss should cause us to pause, grieve and reflect, but numbness is the normality when consistent gun violence causes constant, senseless deaths amidst a war zone. This project will make you rethink the normalcy of gun violence in our country.
Death and Taxes is the story of grief and societal numbness. The film uses the small city of Chester, PA, to examine a much larger phenomenon; we live in a society where murder is something we watch in movies as entertainment and see on the news as something to click past. The detachment to Death for onlookers of the black community has become mundane and banal as paying taxes. In this film, I wanted to examine the different coping mechanisms families use for dealing with Death; funerals are abrupt and expensive when they can't afford the time to grieve appropriately.
On average, a funeral in Pennsylvania costs $10,805; for a family already struggling financially, a funeral expense can curse them to a lifetime of poverty. I wanted to use the character Mort as a vehicle to explore this voyeuristic perspective; To survive, Mort is forced to remove himself from processing his brother's Death; he is our eyes into this experience, representing society's propensity for distance and numbness to inner-city Death.
The population of Chester, PA, is primarily Black Americans; the town was once a thriving industrial hub in the East Coast. The town's white population flew the coop after the deindustrialization and integration period, leaving behind a city without resources. 2010 the violent crime rate rose to 1,359, whereas the US National Average was 223.2. That same year, after four murders were reported in a single week, the latter being a 2-year-old Child, Chester, PA, declared a state of emergency. The town is now a food desert, with underfunded schools plagued with violence. As a result, from 2011 - 2016, Chester, PA, became one of the top 3 cities in murder per capita in the entire country.
Characters
Mort
Our Silent protagonist, a mortician's assistant and the second youngest Latimore brother, goes through life passively, following behind his two dynamic brothers. Mort is our eyes into Chester.
Collinsworth
Owner of Collinsworth funeral home and Mort's boss, who comes from a long line of Funeral owners, Is a fish out of water that owns the land as one of the few white business owners in a predominantly black town.
Will
The oldest Latimore brother, a returning citizen with a new lease on life, looking to build the community he once took for granted. The Death of his brother places him at a crossroads, as he drowns himself in community work to deal with the grief.
Lonnie
The Second oldest, Latimore is hell-bent on revenge; the Death of his youngest brother has left Lonnie in a grieving rage.
Ms. Latimore
The mother of the Latimore brothers has had an entire life in Chester and is conditioned to loss. She is a faithful but feisty woman, resourceful and resilient as the spirit of Chester.
Everybody Grieves Different
There is no right way to deal with the Death of a loved one. The way one grieves can be in direct conflict with the way someone else close to them will.
Numbness to Violence
Society has become numb to violence; I can remember the first time I ever saw someone get shot; it was an out-of-body experience that forced me to contemplate my mortality. Now I can see someone get shot, stabbed, or assaulted daily on my timeline like many other Americans, and not bat an eye. Violence has become a spectator's sport to some and mundane to others.
Can't afford to grieve
The financial burden of paying for a loved one's funeral doesn't give a struggling family the room to grieve properly; in this system, you always have to prioritize capital and financial responsibility over mental health.
Death & Taxes is a quiet film, filled with distant voyeuristic wide's, using Mort as the eyes into this small black community.
The shots are mostly Still and static to create a numb unsettling effect. The film attempts to capture Death and violence as something mundane and regular, playing up on the absurdity.
Director's Statement
When I was nine years old, my Father became a pastor at a church next to the Benet Projects in Chester, PA. Very early in his tenure at Bethany, he noticed the small six-mile city had many structural and socioeconomic issues that manifested in the form of gun violence. Knowing that was an issue, much of the work outside the Church became funerals, grief counseling, and supporting organizations dealing with the problems head-on. I saw firsthand how doing this work impacted my Father and how numb he had to be to do this work properly. I felt the numbness required to operate in this field, passed on to me as I got older and dealt with the Death of friends and family, each funeral becoming more detached. That feeling came to a head for me during COVID when I noticed the whole world grieving; It made me think critically about the different methods people use to grieve. I compared the numbness required to work in a field dealing with Death to the numbness people adopted to get by, financially and socially. Death & Taxes was inspired by this notion, which led me to highlight the people of Chester who deal with grief day-to-day, capturing the absurdity of being in a constant state of numbness as life goes on around you while dealing with the burden of paying for an unexpected death in the family.
The Team
BTS
Want to get involved?
Death & Taxes not only aims to bring attention to the dark reality within the city of Chester but also to help give the city resources to help overcome these issues.
Death & Taxes has partnered with Safe Corridors, a program that helps combat violence during peak times in Chester. The program takes volunteers from within the community to form a safe path for children to safely get to and from school each day.
https://www.chestercity.com/chester-community-safe-corridors
Thank you
If this story speaks to you, please join us and support this project! We appreciate your time and consideration!
Other ways to support if you can't donate: please help us get closer to our goal by sending the video to at least five of your friends and sharing it on social media platforms to help spread the word!
Please contact [email protected] if you're interested in being more directly involved!
Wishlist
Use the WishList to Pledge cash and Loan items - or - Make a pledge by selecting an Incentive directly.
Director of Photography
Costs $2,500
Alejandro Miyashiro an award-winning Director of Photography. https://alejandromiyashiro.com/
Festival
Costs $2,500
Paying for the cost of submission fees and transportation to festivals
Gear
Costs $2,000
Lighting Rental Equipment
Makeup
Costs $1,000
Makeup artist for dead bodies and blood. Including equipment
Post
Costs $2,500
Post team consists of an Editor, VFX, Colorist, and Sound designer.
Permits
Costs $1,500
To shoot legally at all locations.
Costume
Costs $1,000
Pay for the costumes and costume designer; this film is set in 2011, specificity is key.
Cash Pledge
Costs $0
Direct link:
Share this update!
About This Team
Matthew Morris(Director/Writer/producer) Hailing from Philadelphia, PA, Matthew spent the beginning of his career glued to the computer learning all assets of creating a film from youtube videos. After graduating from the prestigious Academy of Youtube, Matthew began his trial by fire, spending the last ten years making films. After years of being self-taught, Matthew decided to fly across the country to California to receive his MFA from Loyola Marymount Film School. Here he would continue to strive to hone his skills, placing in numerous competitions and festivals and becoming a member of the Oscars Academy Gold program.
Andre J Ferguson(Writer/Producer) is currently a producer on the hit Starz series, Power book:II Ghost. Andre was raised in the inner city of Jamaica Queens, NY. Andre attended Five Towns College in Long Island, NY. After completing only one semester, Andre made a decision to begin writing screeplays and submitted his script to show runner, Courtney Kemp which led him to being hired as a staff writer for the hit series Power.
Alitl Luna Flores(Photographer/Cinamatographer/Producer) is a photographer, videographer, and creative artist. Over the past ten years, Alitl has helped enhance countless artists, businesses, and brands' platforms. The passion and curiosity Alitl has for this craft pushes him to constantly step out of his comfort zone to figure out new creative ways to bring life to images that connect and move people.
Alejandro Miyashiro(DP) was born and raised in San Diego, CA where he grew up developing photography skills and later earned a Bachelor of Science degree in Film Production at San Diego State University. Alejandro has shot narrative films that have screened in the U.S. and internationally; including Director, Jamie Dack's short film, Palm Trees and Power Lines, which premiered at the Festival de Cannes in 2018. Additionally, he was the Director of Photography for Rashad Frett’s short film, K.I.N.G., for which Frett received a Director's Guild of America (DGA) Best Student Film Award. Alejandro received his MFA from New York University's Graduate Film Program, and is currently based in Brooklyn, NY.
Krushan(Editor) is an award-winning Filmmaker and Editor based in Los Angeles, CA. Coming from India, he brings an extensive seven-year-long experience in the Advertising World as a sole successful proprietor of his Advertising Agency, working with Bollywood celebrities and the best of the film and fashion industry artists. His first-ever film was an animated short, nominated for the Viewers Choice Awards at the 24 FPS International Animation Awards 2012, Mumbai. Krushan's latest film, Resurgence, has premiered at multiple film festivals, including the Oscar®/Academy Award® qualifying St. Louis International Film Festival, and is also a winner at the Fort Lauderdale International Film Festival and the Utah Film Festival.
Risa Desilva(Marketing) Learning and training solutions specialist with a focus on using blended learning models and integrative technology toolsto foster engagement that closes skill and content gapsin both young and adult learners. Veteran leadership and staff development program managerwith extensive curriculum design, alignment, and implementation experience. Collaborative, data-driven, goals oriented, and professional.