Endless Light
Fairbanks, Alaska | Film Feature
Drama, Sci-Fi
A drama steeped in naturalism & magic realism, Endless Light explores a bipolar woman's relationship to trauma, grief & recovery following her brother's suspected suicide. In coalescing the film's story with Fairbanks, a natural spotlight arose showcasing its vibrant arts community ~
Endless Light
Fairbanks, Alaska | Film Feature
Drama, Sci-Fi
1 Campaigns | Texas, United States
Green Light
This campaign raised $10,150 for post-production. Follow the filmmaker to receive future updates on this project.
105 supporters | followers
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A drama steeped in naturalism & magic realism, Endless Light explores a bipolar woman's relationship to trauma, grief & recovery following her brother's suspected suicide. In coalescing the film's story with Fairbanks, a natural spotlight arose showcasing its vibrant arts community ~
About The Project
- The Story
- Wishlist
- Updates
- The Team
- Community
Mission Statement
The Story
Story n’ Time
Endless Light is a story about attempting to understand death, what it means in choosing to be alive, and acknowledging it’s a complicated decision. Giving credence to those that choose to move beyond living, onto the unknown realm.
Joanna is a lifelong Alaskan who escaped her hometown of Fairbanks to pursue graduate school in Seattle. Following two years of school and having finally reached a detente with her manic depression, her brother Charles is found drowned in a remote Alaskan lake, a suspected suicide. Irrevocably connected to her only sibling, Joanna finds herself falling backwards into a spiral of drugs & depression, in a bathtub full of water, slitting her forearm in a desperate pursuit to talk with her brother as she staggers on the fringe of death.
Awaking in her hometown under the hospital-sanctioned care & supervision of her ex-boyfriend, Malcolm, Joanna tries to decipher her brother’s motives while finding her own mental & spiritual stability. In the midst of recovery, her life is upended by a traveling Dionysian musician from the city of angels, Gaia.
Person n' Place
Having grown up in Fairbanks, Alaska, I experienced what a life of extremes can do to one's psyche. Behaviors and lifestyles freely toed the line between controlled & unhinged as we went from 24 hours of sunlight during summer Solstice to only 3 hours during winter Solstice. The environment is an inherently manic-depressive expression of nature; both a thing of beauty and of uncompromising power. I also experienced how those extremes brought people together and formed tightly knit communities capable of feats one normally witnesses in cities far larger.
Since becoming a filmmaker, I always wanted to make films in my hometown. To me, the landscape and people demanded to be represented in cinema. In the same manner in which I worked with the Fairbanks music scene for over a decade, I wanted this film to be a true communal artistic endeavor with each contributors' voice heard & seen.
We wanted to utilize the spontaneity of improvisational acting & shooting during production to highlight our individual strengths (Juliet, Jacques & Levi all being theatrically trained actors, while I have a background in the pragmatics of shooting documentary films). We laid this infrastructure by spending 7 months in deep discussions of story and character; painting lush character sketches that alloted for full immersion within both real & fictional environments.
Aware of the constraints of low-to-no budget filmmaking, we've embraced every shortcoming as open doors to strong creative decisions. This is evident in the exclusive use of natural light, handheld camera work, hybrid docufiction scenes playing out in public spaces, embrace of 4th wall acknowledgement, and storytelling rooted in devout naturalism.
Subject n’ Matter
I’ve found myself intrinsically drawn to working with the topic of mental health and the manners in which people & society deal with it. My previous film, Florence, was a psychologically driven short about a teenage girl who is misdiagnosed and prescribed psychotropic medication from the school counselor. The film follows her day & her unraveling mind from the mind-altering qualities of the medication. Ultimately, I feel that many ‘mental illnesses’ are actually individuals that are tuned to a different rhythm than what works easily within the societal structure that we live in today. If we went back hundreds and hundreds of years, would a contemporarily schizophrenic-diagnosed person not perhaps be a prophet? A shaman? Someone revered by society?
Coming from a family that has ADHD & Manic Depression in its genes, I prefer to show people who move differently through life. While perhaps not what societally would be considered "mentally stable", these individuals are nonetheless navigating life on their own terms; in all its complex beauty.
Crowd n' Funding
Whether you follow us or generously help us with funding, we hope you join our community of artists & supporters in making this Alaskan film a reality.
We appreciate your time, energy & consideration, and hope life is going as grand as humanly possible for you ~
~::~
Wishlist
Use the WishList to Pledge cash and Loan items - or - Make a pledge by selecting an Incentive directly.
Sound Design & Mixing
Costs $3,500
Critical to a festival run & theatrical release is a professional 5.1 surround sound design & mix.
Cash Pledge
Costs $0
Film Festival Submissions
Costs $1,500
With many film festival submission fees coming in at $60+, the needed funds are surprising.
Festival Deliverables
Costs $1,500
The creation of a Digital Cinema Package is imperative to sending the film to festivals/theaters.
Editor
Costs $1,000
The remaining funds needed to pay the editor through to the film's completion.
Color Correction
Costs $2,500
We still need to shoot the opening scene that involves some heavy practical Special FX prosthetics ~
Share this update!
About This Team
Caleb b. Kuntz (director/cinematographer/writer/producer)
Taking his cinematic eye for nature from his Alaska upbringing, Caleb b. Kuntz has made a mark for himself thru his naturalistic camera aesthetics. Twice nominated for the ASC Heritage award, Kuntz's work can be found in Nanfu Wang's award winning documentary"I Am Another You", Alvaro Torres-Crespo's award-winning documentary "Nosotros Las Piedras", and Arte's 'American Frontiers' series. Having shot a number of narrative & documentary shorts and features, Kuntz's cinematography has screened around the world from the Berlinale to SXSW to FICCI.
Juliet Robb (actress/writer)
is a rebel minded, modern day pioneer woman. Graduating from UT Austin's Theatre and Dance department taught her one thing; you gotta take your destiny into her own hands and the first step is finding fantastic creative partners. She has starred in many theatrical performances including A Streetcar Named Desire in which she played Blanche Dubois. For the last two years she has ventured into the film realm, debuting in films as an actor as well as writing a television series with none other than the spit-fire, Katie Folger.
Jacques Gerard Colimon (actor/story developer)
I am a second generation Haitian American. I attempt radical acts of empathy rooted in personal narrative and collective truth; deliberate and conscious without undue interference to instinct. Our dualistic imagination, uncertainty, unity and faith in myth--all are influences and paths to creativity, recovery and discovery.
Current Team
Incentives
- The Story
- Wishlist
- Updates
- The Team
- Community
Mission Statement
The Story
Story n’ Time
Endless Light is a story about attempting to understand death, what it means in choosing to be alive, and acknowledging it’s a complicated decision. Giving credence to those that choose to move beyond living, onto the unknown realm.
Joanna is a lifelong Alaskan who escaped her hometown of Fairbanks to pursue graduate school in Seattle. Following two years of school and having finally reached a detente with her manic depression, her brother Charles is found drowned in a remote Alaskan lake, a suspected suicide. Irrevocably connected to her only sibling, Joanna finds herself falling backwards into a spiral of drugs & depression, in a bathtub full of water, slitting her forearm in a desperate pursuit to talk with her brother as she staggers on the fringe of death.
Awaking in her hometown under the hospital-sanctioned care & supervision of her ex-boyfriend, Malcolm, Joanna tries to decipher her brother’s motives while finding her own mental & spiritual stability. In the midst of recovery, her life is upended by a traveling Dionysian musician from the city of angels, Gaia.
Person n' Place
Having grown up in Fairbanks, Alaska, I experienced what a life of extremes can do to one's psyche. Behaviors and lifestyles freely toed the line between controlled & unhinged as we went from 24 hours of sunlight during summer Solstice to only 3 hours during winter Solstice. The environment is an inherently manic-depressive expression of nature; both a thing of beauty and of uncompromising power. I also experienced how those extremes brought people together and formed tightly knit communities capable of feats one normally witnesses in cities far larger.
Since becoming a filmmaker, I always wanted to make films in my hometown. To me, the landscape and people demanded to be represented in cinema. In the same manner in which I worked with the Fairbanks music scene for over a decade, I wanted this film to be a true communal artistic endeavor with each contributors' voice heard & seen.
We wanted to utilize the spontaneity of improvisational acting & shooting during production to highlight our individual strengths (Juliet, Jacques & Levi all being theatrically trained actors, while I have a background in the pragmatics of shooting documentary films). We laid this infrastructure by spending 7 months in deep discussions of story and character; painting lush character sketches that alloted for full immersion within both real & fictional environments.
Aware of the constraints of low-to-no budget filmmaking, we've embraced every shortcoming as open doors to strong creative decisions. This is evident in the exclusive use of natural light, handheld camera work, hybrid docufiction scenes playing out in public spaces, embrace of 4th wall acknowledgement, and storytelling rooted in devout naturalism.
Subject n’ Matter
I’ve found myself intrinsically drawn to working with the topic of mental health and the manners in which people & society deal with it. My previous film, Florence, was a psychologically driven short about a teenage girl who is misdiagnosed and prescribed psychotropic medication from the school counselor. The film follows her day & her unraveling mind from the mind-altering qualities of the medication. Ultimately, I feel that many ‘mental illnesses’ are actually individuals that are tuned to a different rhythm than what works easily within the societal structure that we live in today. If we went back hundreds and hundreds of years, would a contemporarily schizophrenic-diagnosed person not perhaps be a prophet? A shaman? Someone revered by society?
Coming from a family that has ADHD & Manic Depression in its genes, I prefer to show people who move differently through life. While perhaps not what societally would be considered "mentally stable", these individuals are nonetheless navigating life on their own terms; in all its complex beauty.
Crowd n' Funding
Whether you follow us or generously help us with funding, we hope you join our community of artists & supporters in making this Alaskan film a reality.
We appreciate your time, energy & consideration, and hope life is going as grand as humanly possible for you ~
~::~
Wishlist
Use the WishList to Pledge cash and Loan items - or - Make a pledge by selecting an Incentive directly.
Sound Design & Mixing
Costs $3,500
Critical to a festival run & theatrical release is a professional 5.1 surround sound design & mix.
Cash Pledge
Costs $0
Film Festival Submissions
Costs $1,500
With many film festival submission fees coming in at $60+, the needed funds are surprising.
Festival Deliverables
Costs $1,500
The creation of a Digital Cinema Package is imperative to sending the film to festivals/theaters.
Editor
Costs $1,000
The remaining funds needed to pay the editor through to the film's completion.
Color Correction
Costs $2,500
We still need to shoot the opening scene that involves some heavy practical Special FX prosthetics ~
Share this update!
About This Team
Caleb b. Kuntz (director/cinematographer/writer/producer)
Taking his cinematic eye for nature from his Alaska upbringing, Caleb b. Kuntz has made a mark for himself thru his naturalistic camera aesthetics. Twice nominated for the ASC Heritage award, Kuntz's work can be found in Nanfu Wang's award winning documentary"I Am Another You", Alvaro Torres-Crespo's award-winning documentary "Nosotros Las Piedras", and Arte's 'American Frontiers' series. Having shot a number of narrative & documentary shorts and features, Kuntz's cinematography has screened around the world from the Berlinale to SXSW to FICCI.
Juliet Robb (actress/writer)
is a rebel minded, modern day pioneer woman. Graduating from UT Austin's Theatre and Dance department taught her one thing; you gotta take your destiny into her own hands and the first step is finding fantastic creative partners. She has starred in many theatrical performances including A Streetcar Named Desire in which she played Blanche Dubois. For the last two years she has ventured into the film realm, debuting in films as an actor as well as writing a television series with none other than the spit-fire, Katie Folger.
Jacques Gerard Colimon (actor/story developer)
I am a second generation Haitian American. I attempt radical acts of empathy rooted in personal narrative and collective truth; deliberate and conscious without undue interference to instinct. Our dualistic imagination, uncertainty, unity and faith in myth--all are influences and paths to creativity, recovery and discovery.