You Are Not a Bother, Electric Woman
New York City, New York | Film Short
Comedy, Drama
In a world where elder women aren't given much opportunity, often leaving them feeling disposable or like nuisances, our film will give space to these aging women, having them lead on camera and showing that their importance will never pass and their liveliness should be forever celebrated.
You Are Not a Bother, Electric Woman
New York City, New York | Film Short
Comedy, Drama
1 Campaigns | New York, United States
Green Light
This campaign raised $12,475 for production. Follow the filmmaker to receive future updates on this project.
107 supporters | followers
Enter the amount you would like to pledge
In a world where elder women aren't given much opportunity, often leaving them feeling disposable or like nuisances, our film will give space to these aging women, having them lead on camera and showing that their importance will never pass and their liveliness should be forever celebrated.
About The Project
- The Story
- Wishlist
- Updates
- The Team
- Community
Mission Statement
The Story
You Are Not a Bother, Electric Woman is a feminist dark comedy about elderly women in a bathhouse rediscovering their liveliness, importance, and overall, electricity.
A lil taste of our film's setting, characters, costumes, colors, and energy
How well do you know your grandmothers?
Many of us don’t have a lot of knowledge about the older women in our lives, even when it comes to family. As they've aged, the world has conditioned them to grow quiet about the things they want and the amazing things they did.
My grandmother, who will soon be 105, is one of the most spirited women I’ve known. But over time, I've seen her question why we'd want to spend time with her and express that she feels like a burden. Without my mom, I wouldn't know that my grandma once flew airplanes at the same time as Amelia Earhart, a success younger people would rave about. Or the strength she holds from the hardships she survived growing up in the early 1900s. Or that she was a hard-working and compassionate business owner. There is so much to be celebrated and recognized about my grandma, but instead, she lives with us quietly and worries she is a bother. Thankfully, my mom still sees the amazing woman she once was and still is. We took her river rafting for her 100th birthday.
My film aims to celebrate women of all ages, but especially those who face ageism and dwindling societal regard. This is why I named this film ‘You Are Not A Bother, Electric Woman’, because elder folks are filled with more life than any of us, and this is an opportunity to have their story lead on-screen, and remind audiences of their importance and overall, electricity. I wrote this story for my younger and older self. It discusses women of different ages' hardships and embraces their empowerment. I’d like to inspire more women, who may be facing the natural yet challenging process of aging, that neither age nor other’s views ever determine your worth or inner and outer beauty.
Natalia and her mom support Grammy up to a mountain view
Maria – 70-years-old, AKA Sexy Toes, a once famously full-of-life woman who feels that with how the world has been treating her, there’s nothing left for a woman her age but death. And she’s tired of waiting. So, she plans to live one last day before officially saying ciao to the world.
Squeeze – Maria’s fire-cracker best friend who has only grown spunkier in age. She wants to support Maria in her decision but doesn’t understand why her amazing best friend wants to die. Squeeze holds a lot of sadness and resentment towards Maria under her fun, sarcastic attitude.
Araceli – While only in her 20s and a playful wise-ass at heart, this young woman seems older than the older women around her. She works tirelessly at the bathhouse because that’s the life she’s grown up to know, but quietly dreams of the spirited youth she sees others participating in.
Plot: You Are Not a Bother, Electric Woman follows Maria on her chosen last day of life.
The story opens on the day of a lively parade. Maria and her best friend, Squeeze, push against the crowd with a mission to get to the bathhouse where Maria has chosen to spend her perfectly planned last day. It will be here that she eats her celebratory poisoned cake. Of course, the cake plan goes wrong and Maria is faced with the reality of life. With acknowledgments from Araceli, a younger perspective, and Squeeze, the person who remembers the lively Maria best, Maria's love for both herself and life are rekindled and the audience is left understanding that the parade of life will always go on.
Grammy holds fabric in place as I cut pieces for one of the many eccentric parade costumes
My goal with this film is to dip into both the absurd and the realistic, creating a surreal world while also holding space for the very real and important emotional storyline. I will be doing this by approaching my characters, settings, and visuals from a playful eye. I want moments of the film to be loud and unapologetic, directing from beyond a classical lens and creating a world unique in place and time. And all while keeping emotions familiar to us, handled with care and human understanding. With this, the audience will be immersed in the eccentric world and feel seen and/or empathize with those on screen.
Some select storyboards paired with blocking and composition inspirations
While this is the most momentous film I've made so far, it ain't my first rodeo. Over 9 years, I've directed 40+ shorts from narratives, documentaries, and commercial music videos. I’ve had the honor to win Best Film 10 times and Best Director 6 at various festivals.
Select frames from some of my past work
Seed&Spark requires that we raise at least 80% of our goal in 30 days or we won't receive any funds at all. Your contribution will help us reach our full potential with this project. The $10,600 you are helping us raise will go towards:
Location Rental & Permits - 8000
Food - 1500
Grip & Electric - 500
Costumes & Production Design - 600
While our goal of $10,600 will help us greenlight production, reaching the following stretch goals would help us unlock additional ways to make this film the best it can be:
$12,500 - We’ll be able to provide lodging for our older cast so that they won’t have to commute as far for our shoot days that start at 6:30am!
$14,300 - Our camera and art departments will be able to rent more equipment and art to magnify the vision! We would also be able to secure transportation and storage units.
$16,800 - We'll be able to pay for post-production fees, music licensing, and film festival submission fees to enhance our film and to share our story with a greater audience!
Our set comes with unique challenges that may be invisible in a budget pie chart. Sufficient funds can help us ensure things such as being able to rent the right equipment to handle bathhouse humidity and securing warm areas for crew/cast to break in during our exterior scenes.
A note on COVID: This film was originally set to be shot in early 2020, but when COVID first hit, we had to postpone our dates 'till this coming March. With COVID still prevalent, for the safety of our cast/crew, we will ensure that all involved in the production are fully vaccinated and tested negative the day of shooting. If COVID delays our production again, we will make plans to swiftly bring this film to you as soon as we safely can!
Storyboards paired with photographs I took at Masopust, an amazing Czech parade, which heavily inspired the film's story and costumes
- In-kind donations: Any type of goods/services such as food, equipment, and vehicles to transport our equipment would be appreciated! We welcome donations of all kinds, and would be happy to include any donors’ names in our film’s credits!
- Help us spread the word: Give us a boost on social media, repost us, call up your friends and family, share this link!
- Follow us on Instagram @electricwomanfilm and Facebook: You’ll get project updates, costume sneak peeks, BTS photos, and maybe some special surprises!
However you decide to respond to this call for support, we thank you for giving our campaign a moment of attention. Even if you can’t contribute today, we hope you can stay in touch and follow this film’s journey! Feel free to email us at [email protected] if you want to say hi, have any questions, requests or offers! We're looking forward to bringing this film to you :)
Wishlist
Use the WishList to Pledge cash and Loan items - or - Make a pledge by selecting an Incentive directly.
Location Rentals and Permits
Costs $8,000
This Russian bathhouse is a perfect space to tell our stories with our elder ladies!
Grip and Electric
Costs $500
Please help us get good-quality equipment that will do our actors and story justice!
Food
Costs $1,500
A well-fed crew is a happy crew. Please help us pay for our cast and crew members’ meals!
Costumes & Production Design
Costs $600
Help our vision of the spunky, lively heaven inside our unique bathhouse come alive!
Share this update!
About This Team
Natalia - Natalia Ferrara (writer, director) is a Los-Angeles-raised & New-York-based young woman who’s been directing films for over 9 years and loving every moment of it. With a focus on telling female-led stories, she hopes to both move audiences and create change while also using absurd settings, characters, and humor that make her films her own. Natalia has won Best Film 10 times and Best Director 6, and after her upcoming NYU Tisch Film & TV graduation, she aims to continue her directing career in feature-length form.
Sarah - Sarah Greenbaum is a Brooklyn-based cinematographer and recent graduate of NYU’s Kanbar Institute for Film & Television. She developed a profound love for light and color in nature while growing up in a small coastal town and further cultivated her knowledge of communication, structure, and the expression of emotion in her classical training as a painter at the Russian Academy of Art in Florence. She has collaborated on numerous commercial and narrative film projects in the United States and abroad. She has received numerous recognitions for her work, most notably the Volker Bahnemann/ARRI Award for Outstanding Cinematography, the Christopher B. Smithers Documentary Award, Documentary Winner of the ReelPeople/ReelAbilities Shorts Competition, and Documentary Finalist at the NYU Fusion Film Festival.
Lia - Lia Lee is a producer and third-year film student at NYU Gallatin. Also a writer and director herself, her concentration is storytelling techniques through film and animation. She has worked on various film sets with independent and student filmmakers. She is passionate about creating work that showcases less dramatized, more realistic ways of life, that are ultimately uplifting to its audience. Her biggest inspirations are Studio Ghibli and Koreeda Hirokazu.
Chanel - Chanel Pulido is a producer and a junior at New York University. She is pursuing a major in Global Liberal Studies and a minor in Film. In her free time, she is the editor-in-chief of the magazine at Generasian, NYU’s Asian American multimedia publication, for which she works with writers and artists to tell stories about the Asian American community. She has a passion for telling stories of underrepresented communities through writing, art, and film. As a first-time producer, she is so excited to work with Natalia on this beautiful and important film.
Jess - Jess Zheng is a New York-based producer and recent graduate of the NYU Tisch Film & TV Program. A lover of narratives and documentaries alike, she has produced a number of independent shorts and was previously employed at Alex Gibney’s Jigsaw Productions & The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon. She is currently in-production for a docu-series at Radical Media. A frequent collaborator of Natalia’s, Jess is ecstatic to be a part of her thesis and newest creative endeavor. She has often told stories of empowered women and is thrilled to help create an immersive experience for such a unique story.
David - David Buhrmaster is a New York-based producer and recent graduate of the NYU Tisch Film & TV Program. With a passion for helping diverse and dynamic creatives bring their visions to life, David has produced and assistant directed a multitude of independent and student short films. He has worked on productions for HBO, ViacomCBS, and Amazon Studios. In addition to producing "You Are Not A Bother, Electric Woman," David is currently working on a documentary project that has been acquired by [a major streamer] (sorry, NDA and all that!).
Katie - Katie Balun is a production designer who values collaboration and attention to detail in order to build dynamic settings. Her thought-provoking design is all-encompassing of lighting, camera movement, and performance. Balun creates a story arc for each setting so that the world of the film feels like a character in itself.
Current Team
Incentives
- The Story
- Wishlist
- Updates
- The Team
- Community
Mission Statement
The Story
You Are Not a Bother, Electric Woman is a feminist dark comedy about elderly women in a bathhouse rediscovering their liveliness, importance, and overall, electricity.
A lil taste of our film's setting, characters, costumes, colors, and energy
How well do you know your grandmothers?
Many of us don’t have a lot of knowledge about the older women in our lives, even when it comes to family. As they've aged, the world has conditioned them to grow quiet about the things they want and the amazing things they did.
My grandmother, who will soon be 105, is one of the most spirited women I’ve known. But over time, I've seen her question why we'd want to spend time with her and express that she feels like a burden. Without my mom, I wouldn't know that my grandma once flew airplanes at the same time as Amelia Earhart, a success younger people would rave about. Or the strength she holds from the hardships she survived growing up in the early 1900s. Or that she was a hard-working and compassionate business owner. There is so much to be celebrated and recognized about my grandma, but instead, she lives with us quietly and worries she is a bother. Thankfully, my mom still sees the amazing woman she once was and still is. We took her river rafting for her 100th birthday.
My film aims to celebrate women of all ages, but especially those who face ageism and dwindling societal regard. This is why I named this film ‘You Are Not A Bother, Electric Woman’, because elder folks are filled with more life than any of us, and this is an opportunity to have their story lead on-screen, and remind audiences of their importance and overall, electricity. I wrote this story for my younger and older self. It discusses women of different ages' hardships and embraces their empowerment. I’d like to inspire more women, who may be facing the natural yet challenging process of aging, that neither age nor other’s views ever determine your worth or inner and outer beauty.
Natalia and her mom support Grammy up to a mountain view
Maria – 70-years-old, AKA Sexy Toes, a once famously full-of-life woman who feels that with how the world has been treating her, there’s nothing left for a woman her age but death. And she’s tired of waiting. So, she plans to live one last day before officially saying ciao to the world.
Squeeze – Maria’s fire-cracker best friend who has only grown spunkier in age. She wants to support Maria in her decision but doesn’t understand why her amazing best friend wants to die. Squeeze holds a lot of sadness and resentment towards Maria under her fun, sarcastic attitude.
Araceli – While only in her 20s and a playful wise-ass at heart, this young woman seems older than the older women around her. She works tirelessly at the bathhouse because that’s the life she’s grown up to know, but quietly dreams of the spirited youth she sees others participating in.
Plot: You Are Not a Bother, Electric Woman follows Maria on her chosen last day of life.
The story opens on the day of a lively parade. Maria and her best friend, Squeeze, push against the crowd with a mission to get to the bathhouse where Maria has chosen to spend her perfectly planned last day. It will be here that she eats her celebratory poisoned cake. Of course, the cake plan goes wrong and Maria is faced with the reality of life. With acknowledgments from Araceli, a younger perspective, and Squeeze, the person who remembers the lively Maria best, Maria's love for both herself and life are rekindled and the audience is left understanding that the parade of life will always go on.
Grammy holds fabric in place as I cut pieces for one of the many eccentric parade costumes
My goal with this film is to dip into both the absurd and the realistic, creating a surreal world while also holding space for the very real and important emotional storyline. I will be doing this by approaching my characters, settings, and visuals from a playful eye. I want moments of the film to be loud and unapologetic, directing from beyond a classical lens and creating a world unique in place and time. And all while keeping emotions familiar to us, handled with care and human understanding. With this, the audience will be immersed in the eccentric world and feel seen and/or empathize with those on screen.
Some select storyboards paired with blocking and composition inspirations
While this is the most momentous film I've made so far, it ain't my first rodeo. Over 9 years, I've directed 40+ shorts from narratives, documentaries, and commercial music videos. I’ve had the honor to win Best Film 10 times and Best Director 6 at various festivals.
Select frames from some of my past work
Seed&Spark requires that we raise at least 80% of our goal in 30 days or we won't receive any funds at all. Your contribution will help us reach our full potential with this project. The $10,600 you are helping us raise will go towards:
Location Rental & Permits - 8000
Food - 1500
Grip & Electric - 500
Costumes & Production Design - 600
While our goal of $10,600 will help us greenlight production, reaching the following stretch goals would help us unlock additional ways to make this film the best it can be:
$12,500 - We’ll be able to provide lodging for our older cast so that they won’t have to commute as far for our shoot days that start at 6:30am!
$14,300 - Our camera and art departments will be able to rent more equipment and art to magnify the vision! We would also be able to secure transportation and storage units.
$16,800 - We'll be able to pay for post-production fees, music licensing, and film festival submission fees to enhance our film and to share our story with a greater audience!
Our set comes with unique challenges that may be invisible in a budget pie chart. Sufficient funds can help us ensure things such as being able to rent the right equipment to handle bathhouse humidity and securing warm areas for crew/cast to break in during our exterior scenes.
A note on COVID: This film was originally set to be shot in early 2020, but when COVID first hit, we had to postpone our dates 'till this coming March. With COVID still prevalent, for the safety of our cast/crew, we will ensure that all involved in the production are fully vaccinated and tested negative the day of shooting. If COVID delays our production again, we will make plans to swiftly bring this film to you as soon as we safely can!
Storyboards paired with photographs I took at Masopust, an amazing Czech parade, which heavily inspired the film's story and costumes
- In-kind donations: Any type of goods/services such as food, equipment, and vehicles to transport our equipment would be appreciated! We welcome donations of all kinds, and would be happy to include any donors’ names in our film’s credits!
- Help us spread the word: Give us a boost on social media, repost us, call up your friends and family, share this link!
- Follow us on Instagram @electricwomanfilm and Facebook: You’ll get project updates, costume sneak peeks, BTS photos, and maybe some special surprises!
However you decide to respond to this call for support, we thank you for giving our campaign a moment of attention. Even if you can’t contribute today, we hope you can stay in touch and follow this film’s journey! Feel free to email us at [email protected] if you want to say hi, have any questions, requests or offers! We're looking forward to bringing this film to you :)
Wishlist
Use the WishList to Pledge cash and Loan items - or - Make a pledge by selecting an Incentive directly.
Location Rentals and Permits
Costs $8,000
This Russian bathhouse is a perfect space to tell our stories with our elder ladies!
Grip and Electric
Costs $500
Please help us get good-quality equipment that will do our actors and story justice!
Food
Costs $1,500
A well-fed crew is a happy crew. Please help us pay for our cast and crew members’ meals!
Costumes & Production Design
Costs $600
Help our vision of the spunky, lively heaven inside our unique bathhouse come alive!
Share this update!
About This Team
Natalia - Natalia Ferrara (writer, director) is a Los-Angeles-raised & New-York-based young woman who’s been directing films for over 9 years and loving every moment of it. With a focus on telling female-led stories, she hopes to both move audiences and create change while also using absurd settings, characters, and humor that make her films her own. Natalia has won Best Film 10 times and Best Director 6, and after her upcoming NYU Tisch Film & TV graduation, she aims to continue her directing career in feature-length form.
Sarah - Sarah Greenbaum is a Brooklyn-based cinematographer and recent graduate of NYU’s Kanbar Institute for Film & Television. She developed a profound love for light and color in nature while growing up in a small coastal town and further cultivated her knowledge of communication, structure, and the expression of emotion in her classical training as a painter at the Russian Academy of Art in Florence. She has collaborated on numerous commercial and narrative film projects in the United States and abroad. She has received numerous recognitions for her work, most notably the Volker Bahnemann/ARRI Award for Outstanding Cinematography, the Christopher B. Smithers Documentary Award, Documentary Winner of the ReelPeople/ReelAbilities Shorts Competition, and Documentary Finalist at the NYU Fusion Film Festival.
Lia - Lia Lee is a producer and third-year film student at NYU Gallatin. Also a writer and director herself, her concentration is storytelling techniques through film and animation. She has worked on various film sets with independent and student filmmakers. She is passionate about creating work that showcases less dramatized, more realistic ways of life, that are ultimately uplifting to its audience. Her biggest inspirations are Studio Ghibli and Koreeda Hirokazu.
Chanel - Chanel Pulido is a producer and a junior at New York University. She is pursuing a major in Global Liberal Studies and a minor in Film. In her free time, she is the editor-in-chief of the magazine at Generasian, NYU’s Asian American multimedia publication, for which she works with writers and artists to tell stories about the Asian American community. She has a passion for telling stories of underrepresented communities through writing, art, and film. As a first-time producer, she is so excited to work with Natalia on this beautiful and important film.
Jess - Jess Zheng is a New York-based producer and recent graduate of the NYU Tisch Film & TV Program. A lover of narratives and documentaries alike, she has produced a number of independent shorts and was previously employed at Alex Gibney’s Jigsaw Productions & The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon. She is currently in-production for a docu-series at Radical Media. A frequent collaborator of Natalia’s, Jess is ecstatic to be a part of her thesis and newest creative endeavor. She has often told stories of empowered women and is thrilled to help create an immersive experience for such a unique story.
David - David Buhrmaster is a New York-based producer and recent graduate of the NYU Tisch Film & TV Program. With a passion for helping diverse and dynamic creatives bring their visions to life, David has produced and assistant directed a multitude of independent and student short films. He has worked on productions for HBO, ViacomCBS, and Amazon Studios. In addition to producing "You Are Not A Bother, Electric Woman," David is currently working on a documentary project that has been acquired by [a major streamer] (sorry, NDA and all that!).
Katie - Katie Balun is a production designer who values collaboration and attention to detail in order to build dynamic settings. Her thought-provoking design is all-encompassing of lighting, camera movement, and performance. Balun creates a story arc for each setting so that the world of the film feels like a character in itself.