Forget Me Not
New York City, New York | Film Feature
Romance, Fantasy
After a devastating breakup, two young wizards erase each other from memory. But when Marcus’s wand goes missing, they’re forced back together to retrace a relationship neither remembers and confront what they lost along the way.
Forget Me Not
New York City, New York | Film Feature
Romance, Fantasy
3 Campaigns | New York, United States
37 supporters | followers
Enter the amount you would like to pledge
$5,411
Goal: $35,000 for post-production
After a devastating breakup, two young wizards erase each other from memory. But when Marcus’s wand goes missing, they’re forced back together to retrace a relationship neither remembers and confront what they lost along the way.
About The Project
- The Story
- Wishlist
- Updates
- The Team
- Community
Mission Statement
The Story
Forget Me Not is a magical realism romance set in Brooklyn on Halloween, about two young magic users who erase their memories after the end of their relationship only to spend one strange, intimate day retracing the love they chose to forget. But underneath the magic, this is a film about something very human: what we do with the people who change us
I wrote Forget Me Not because I kept thinking about the impossible bargain of heartbreak. When a relationship ends, we often say we wish we could forget. Forget the pain. Forget the fights. Forget the person who still lives in the corners of our memory. But if we could actually erase that hurt, what else would disappear with it? The tenderness? The growth? The version of ourselves that only existed because we loved someone?
That question became the heart of this film.
The story follows Marcus and Sienna, two magic users who take a memory potion after their breakup. The spell is supposed to help them move on. Instead, it leaves Marcus’s family wand missing a powerful heirloom now unaccounted for at the worst possible time.
On the very night Marcus and Sienna erased their memories, the Order of Magical Governance issued a decree: all unregistered wands must be turned in for cataloging. What should have been a private heartbreak suddenly becomes a ticking clock. If the Order discovers Marcus’s wand is missing before they can find it, the consequences could reach far beyond their relationship.
Helping them through this strange and emotionally fractured journey are their respective guides. Adalye, Sienna’s most trusted friend and cousin, knows Sienna well enough to see what the potion has buried the pain, the love, and the truth she may not be ready to face. Javier, an agent of the Order and a longtime ward of Marcus’s father, arrives before things get worse. His job is to keep Marcus safe, contain the situation, and find the wand before the Order realizes it is missing. But as the day unfolds, Javier becomes more than an enforcer. He is a witness to the damage, the history, and the love Marcus can no longer fully remember.
Together, the four of them move through Brooklyn on Halloween, retracing the remains of Marcus and Sienna’s relationship before time runs out. What begins as a search for a missing wand becomes a search for the truth of what happened between them and whether some memories are too important to stay forgotten.
This is not a film where magic is about spectacle. In Forget Me Not, magic is emotional. It is a love story that refuses to stay buried.
As a Black filmmaker, I want to make fantasy that feels intimate, grounded, and emotionally honest. I want to see Black characters in stories where they get to be romantic, complicated, funny, wounded, magical, and fully human without the magic pulling them away from the real world. Brooklyn is not just the backdrop of this film. It is part of the spell.
We have already shot Forget Me Not. The performances exist. The heartbreak is in it. The joy is in it. The magic is in it. We built this world independently, assembled an extraordinary team, and carried the film through production with a lot of heart, sweat, favors, and belief.
We are raising $35,000 in finishing funds to carry Forget Me Not through the final stages of post-production. These funds will go directly toward the work that transforms a completed shoot into a finished feature film ready for audiences. Following the campaign, we will move through the remaining stages of post-production: final editorial, sound, color, visual effects, music, pickups, and delivery. Our goal is to complete Forget Me Not in 2027, then begin its path toward festivals, screenings, and audiences.
Your support helps us protect the magic of the film.
It helps us finish a Black magical realism romance with the care, polish, and emotional weight it deserves.
Forget Me Not is about love, memory, grief, and the question we all face eventually: if you could erase the pain, would you also erase the proof that it mattered?
Wishlist
Use the WishList to Pledge cash and Loan items - or - Make a pledge by selecting an Incentive directly.
Music & Score
Costs $5,000
Help us license music and build an original score that carries the romance, grief, and quiet magic of the film.
Audio Mixing and Sound Design
Costs $10,000
Funds for dialogue cleanup, sound design, final mix, and mastering so the film plays beautifully anywhere.
Pickup Shots
Costs $5,000
A few final shots and inserts to strengthen story, pacing, and the emotional details we need after the edit.
Colorgrade
Costs $5,000
Final color work to shape the film’s Brooklyn Halloween glow, memory, heartbreak, and magic in every frame.
Marketing
Costs $5,000
Trailers, posters, social assets, festival materials, and outreach to help the film find its audience.
VFX
Costs $5,000
Subtle visual effects for wand work, memory moments, and grounded magic that feels emotional, not flashy.
Direct link:
Share this update!
About This Team
Michael Cooke
Writer/Director/Executive Producer
rget Me Not is led by writer/director Michael Cooke, a New York-based filmmaker and cinematographer whose work spans narrative film, commercials, documentaries, and major studio featurettes.
Through Golden Trace Productions, Michael brought together a committed team of actors, producers, artists, and crew to make an ambitious magical realism romance in Brooklyn. Our team has already completed principal photography with the help of our local community. Now we’re working with collaborators across editing, sound, color, music, and VFX, to bring the film across the finish line.
This is a team built on craft, trust, and resourcefulness the kind of team independent film depends on.
Hayley Ulmer
Producer
Hayley is a NYC based producer and production manager. She got her start in film working in the art department on various commercials and transitioned into production from there. She has worked as a PM on a variety of corporate and commercial projects, as well as a producer on various short films. Her first feature film as a producer Thanks To Her was released online in 2024 and her directorial debut short documentary Blood Friends was screened at the 2025 DOC NY Fest to critical acclaim.
Errol Sadler
Producer
Errol Sadler is one of the most sought after producers in the industry. Combining his creative and financial background with a keen eye for stories with blockbuster capabilities, high concepts and thrills, he ascends to be one of the most influential and key pivotal players in the world of independent television and film production.
As founder-CEO of his emerging production company Supremacy Films, Sadler was nominated for the 2022 Producers Guild Awards. Under his leadership, Supremacy Films has created, developed, packaged and produced high quality projects all while breaking barriers by putting women in roles that were made specifically for men.
Gbenga Akinnagbe
Actor/Producer
benga Akinnagbe is an American actor and writer, best known for his role as Chris Partlow in the HBO series "The Wire". He was born in Washington, D.C., to Nigerian parents and raised in Maryland. He is also recognized for his role as Larry Brown in the HBO series "The Deuce". Beyond acting, Akinnagbe is a published writer, with articles appearing in The New York Times. He is also the founder of Liberated People, a social justice lifestyle brand.
Anthony Hemingway
Consulting Producer
Anthony Maurice Hemingway is a Golden Globe, Emmy® and NAACP Award-winning Producer/Director. Born in the Bronx, New York to industry parents, Anthony stands as the textbook definition of a wunderkind. Hemingway became fascinated with the art of storytelling at a very young age. Immediately recognizing his calling, Hemingway graduated from E.A. Laney High School in Wilmington, North Carolina and soon became the youngest Second A.D. in the Directors Guild of America at the age of 19 and then the youngest First A.D. at 22 in 1998. Hemingway quickly rose through the ranks, achieving his directorial debut on the universally lauded fourth season of HBO’s “The Wire.”
Christina Chalmers
Consulting Producer
Christina Chalmers brings a decade of brand storytelling and media strategy expertise to film marketing, having transformed consumer brands through compelling narrative-driven campaigns. As Founder of The Lafray Agency and former marketing leader at major CPG brands, she specializes in creative direction, content production, and omnichannel media orchestration.
Christina has a proven track record of producing viral content campaigns, managing multi-million-dollar media budgets, and creating experiential marketing programs that capture cultural moments. With an MBA in Marketing and executive training in Creative Direction, she brings both strategic depth and hands-on creative production experience. Her background in building authentic brand narratives and driving measurable audience engagement makes her uniquely positioned to elevate independent film projects in competitive entertainment landscapes.
David Quateman
Cinematographer
David Quateman is a New York and Chicago–based cinematographer whose work spans narrative, documentary, and commercial filmmaking. A skilled interdisciplinary camera operator, he brings a deep command of movement and texture to the frame, with experience in steadicam, gimbals, drones, underwater cinematography, and multi-camera setups.
Over the past five years, David has been a close creative partner to director Michael Cooke, developing a shared visual language across projects that range from intimate character studies to large-scale branded campaigns. Their long collaboration grounds Forget Me Not with both trust and a unified vision, blending grounded realism with lyrical movement.
Carmine LaMorte
VFX Supervisor
Carmine LaMorte is a New York City based VFX artist with over 10 years of experience. A graduate from the School of Visual Arts, he's collaborated with brands like Verizon, Amazon, and Nickelodeon to create inventive art installations and charming visuals. Creatively-inspired and Technically-minded, he's built a career on finding ways to bridge the emotion and storytelling of filmmakers with the world of Computer Graphics. Ever since his Harry Potter themed birthday party at age 9, Carmine has been waiting for his own letter to a magical world, and this film will finally give him that shot - even if just vicariously.
Current Team
Incentives
- The Story
- Wishlist
- Updates
- The Team
- Community
Mission Statement
The Story
Forget Me Not is a magical realism romance set in Brooklyn on Halloween, about two young magic users who erase their memories after the end of their relationship only to spend one strange, intimate day retracing the love they chose to forget. But underneath the magic, this is a film about something very human: what we do with the people who change us
I wrote Forget Me Not because I kept thinking about the impossible bargain of heartbreak. When a relationship ends, we often say we wish we could forget. Forget the pain. Forget the fights. Forget the person who still lives in the corners of our memory. But if we could actually erase that hurt, what else would disappear with it? The tenderness? The growth? The version of ourselves that only existed because we loved someone?
That question became the heart of this film.
The story follows Marcus and Sienna, two magic users who take a memory potion after their breakup. The spell is supposed to help them move on. Instead, it leaves Marcus’s family wand missing a powerful heirloom now unaccounted for at the worst possible time.
On the very night Marcus and Sienna erased their memories, the Order of Magical Governance issued a decree: all unregistered wands must be turned in for cataloging. What should have been a private heartbreak suddenly becomes a ticking clock. If the Order discovers Marcus’s wand is missing before they can find it, the consequences could reach far beyond their relationship.
Helping them through this strange and emotionally fractured journey are their respective guides. Adalye, Sienna’s most trusted friend and cousin, knows Sienna well enough to see what the potion has buried the pain, the love, and the truth she may not be ready to face. Javier, an agent of the Order and a longtime ward of Marcus’s father, arrives before things get worse. His job is to keep Marcus safe, contain the situation, and find the wand before the Order realizes it is missing. But as the day unfolds, Javier becomes more than an enforcer. He is a witness to the damage, the history, and the love Marcus can no longer fully remember.
Together, the four of them move through Brooklyn on Halloween, retracing the remains of Marcus and Sienna’s relationship before time runs out. What begins as a search for a missing wand becomes a search for the truth of what happened between them and whether some memories are too important to stay forgotten.
This is not a film where magic is about spectacle. In Forget Me Not, magic is emotional. It is a love story that refuses to stay buried.
As a Black filmmaker, I want to make fantasy that feels intimate, grounded, and emotionally honest. I want to see Black characters in stories where they get to be romantic, complicated, funny, wounded, magical, and fully human without the magic pulling them away from the real world. Brooklyn is not just the backdrop of this film. It is part of the spell.
We have already shot Forget Me Not. The performances exist. The heartbreak is in it. The joy is in it. The magic is in it. We built this world independently, assembled an extraordinary team, and carried the film through production with a lot of heart, sweat, favors, and belief.
We are raising $35,000 in finishing funds to carry Forget Me Not through the final stages of post-production. These funds will go directly toward the work that transforms a completed shoot into a finished feature film ready for audiences. Following the campaign, we will move through the remaining stages of post-production: final editorial, sound, color, visual effects, music, pickups, and delivery. Our goal is to complete Forget Me Not in 2027, then begin its path toward festivals, screenings, and audiences.
Your support helps us protect the magic of the film.
It helps us finish a Black magical realism romance with the care, polish, and emotional weight it deserves.
Forget Me Not is about love, memory, grief, and the question we all face eventually: if you could erase the pain, would you also erase the proof that it mattered?
Wishlist
Use the WishList to Pledge cash and Loan items - or - Make a pledge by selecting an Incentive directly.
Music & Score
Costs $5,000
Help us license music and build an original score that carries the romance, grief, and quiet magic of the film.
Audio Mixing and Sound Design
Costs $10,000
Funds for dialogue cleanup, sound design, final mix, and mastering so the film plays beautifully anywhere.
Pickup Shots
Costs $5,000
A few final shots and inserts to strengthen story, pacing, and the emotional details we need after the edit.
Colorgrade
Costs $5,000
Final color work to shape the film’s Brooklyn Halloween glow, memory, heartbreak, and magic in every frame.
Marketing
Costs $5,000
Trailers, posters, social assets, festival materials, and outreach to help the film find its audience.
VFX
Costs $5,000
Subtle visual effects for wand work, memory moments, and grounded magic that feels emotional, not flashy.
Direct link:
Share this update!
About This Team
Michael Cooke
Writer/Director/Executive Producer
rget Me Not is led by writer/director Michael Cooke, a New York-based filmmaker and cinematographer whose work spans narrative film, commercials, documentaries, and major studio featurettes.
Through Golden Trace Productions, Michael brought together a committed team of actors, producers, artists, and crew to make an ambitious magical realism romance in Brooklyn. Our team has already completed principal photography with the help of our local community. Now we’re working with collaborators across editing, sound, color, music, and VFX, to bring the film across the finish line.
This is a team built on craft, trust, and resourcefulness the kind of team independent film depends on.
Hayley Ulmer
Producer
Hayley is a NYC based producer and production manager. She got her start in film working in the art department on various commercials and transitioned into production from there. She has worked as a PM on a variety of corporate and commercial projects, as well as a producer on various short films. Her first feature film as a producer Thanks To Her was released online in 2024 and her directorial debut short documentary Blood Friends was screened at the 2025 DOC NY Fest to critical acclaim.
Errol Sadler
Producer
Errol Sadler is one of the most sought after producers in the industry. Combining his creative and financial background with a keen eye for stories with blockbuster capabilities, high concepts and thrills, he ascends to be one of the most influential and key pivotal players in the world of independent television and film production.
As founder-CEO of his emerging production company Supremacy Films, Sadler was nominated for the 2022 Producers Guild Awards. Under his leadership, Supremacy Films has created, developed, packaged and produced high quality projects all while breaking barriers by putting women in roles that were made specifically for men.
Gbenga Akinnagbe
Actor/Producer
benga Akinnagbe is an American actor and writer, best known for his role as Chris Partlow in the HBO series "The Wire". He was born in Washington, D.C., to Nigerian parents and raised in Maryland. He is also recognized for his role as Larry Brown in the HBO series "The Deuce". Beyond acting, Akinnagbe is a published writer, with articles appearing in The New York Times. He is also the founder of Liberated People, a social justice lifestyle brand.
Anthony Hemingway
Consulting Producer
Anthony Maurice Hemingway is a Golden Globe, Emmy® and NAACP Award-winning Producer/Director. Born in the Bronx, New York to industry parents, Anthony stands as the textbook definition of a wunderkind. Hemingway became fascinated with the art of storytelling at a very young age. Immediately recognizing his calling, Hemingway graduated from E.A. Laney High School in Wilmington, North Carolina and soon became the youngest Second A.D. in the Directors Guild of America at the age of 19 and then the youngest First A.D. at 22 in 1998. Hemingway quickly rose through the ranks, achieving his directorial debut on the universally lauded fourth season of HBO’s “The Wire.”
Christina Chalmers
Consulting Producer
Christina Chalmers brings a decade of brand storytelling and media strategy expertise to film marketing, having transformed consumer brands through compelling narrative-driven campaigns. As Founder of The Lafray Agency and former marketing leader at major CPG brands, she specializes in creative direction, content production, and omnichannel media orchestration.
Christina has a proven track record of producing viral content campaigns, managing multi-million-dollar media budgets, and creating experiential marketing programs that capture cultural moments. With an MBA in Marketing and executive training in Creative Direction, she brings both strategic depth and hands-on creative production experience. Her background in building authentic brand narratives and driving measurable audience engagement makes her uniquely positioned to elevate independent film projects in competitive entertainment landscapes.
David Quateman
Cinematographer
David Quateman is a New York and Chicago–based cinematographer whose work spans narrative, documentary, and commercial filmmaking. A skilled interdisciplinary camera operator, he brings a deep command of movement and texture to the frame, with experience in steadicam, gimbals, drones, underwater cinematography, and multi-camera setups.
Over the past five years, David has been a close creative partner to director Michael Cooke, developing a shared visual language across projects that range from intimate character studies to large-scale branded campaigns. Their long collaboration grounds Forget Me Not with both trust and a unified vision, blending grounded realism with lyrical movement.
Carmine LaMorte
VFX Supervisor
Carmine LaMorte is a New York City based VFX artist with over 10 years of experience. A graduate from the School of Visual Arts, he's collaborated with brands like Verizon, Amazon, and Nickelodeon to create inventive art installations and charming visuals. Creatively-inspired and Technically-minded, he's built a career on finding ways to bridge the emotion and storytelling of filmmakers with the world of Computer Graphics. Ever since his Harry Potter themed birthday party at age 9, Carmine has been waiting for his own letter to a magical world, and this film will finally give him that shot - even if just vicariously.