After a violent accident, Lilly wakes to find herself having barely escaped the steel grip of death, only to discover the fight has just begun. After a traumatic discovery, Lilly battles her greatest demons with the help of her little brother Richie.
After a violent accident, Lilly wakes to find herself having barely escaped the steel grip of death, only to discover the fight has just begun. After a traumatic discovery, Lilly battles her greatest demons with the help of her little brother Richie.
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Story
Mission Statement
Our team is bringing women to the forefront of action/horror both in front and behind the camera with uncompromising integrity. While this story is based on true, deeply personal events, it is a story about what any of us would be forced to summon to battle our greatest enemy.About The Project
On June 17th, 2019, Kelsey Bollig was in the pedestrian walkway on a green light, crossing the street to her local pharmacy, when an SUV bolted through the light at 30 miles an hour and ran over her, dragging her unconscious body across the pavement.
She shattered 30 bones including all her ribs, spine, clavicle, and pelvis. Both lungs were punctured and collapsed due to breaks in her ribs, and her spleen and liver were lacerated. For the first few days, the doctors were unable to legally tell her that she would live.
Our co-producer Tienlyn, nearly 9 months pregnant at the time, got the call first and drove directly to the emergency room. The support was overwhelming. Family, friends, and even strangers pitched in to help get Kelsey back on her feet.
Kelsey spent a month in the hospital, broken, exhausted, and fighting pain and depression. She went through 5 months of surgery, intense physical therapy, countless tears, and opioid withdrawal. Tienlyn was at the hospital when Kelsey made it to her feet for the first time. Tears were shed - tears of pain, surprise, relief, and hope. We all breathed a sigh of relief. Two weeks later, Kelsey, with meds and wheelchair in tow, was strong enough to be present for her godson’s birth.
She had made it out alive. But after the war, it’s a long way back.
You’d think that getting hit, run over, and dragged 30 feet by an SUV would be the hard part. But oddly enough, that part was a cakewalk compared to what came after. The true battle happens later, in silence, beneath the surface, and behind closed doors. It’s the struggle we want to share with you, through a stylized, surrealist lens that, from Kelsey’s perspective, is closer to the truth than the accident itself.
To have made it to a place where we are even able to tell this story is already such a huge accomplishment from how things were only two years ago. And look at us now - we are ready to share the entire story with you! And not just the highlight reel, but the entire thing. Complete with spine-chilling inner-demons, of course. After all, this wouldn’t be a Kelsey Bollig film without them, now would it?
This is a story about what it is like to be faced with life and death - or worse - somewhere in between. It is the story about what could happen to any of us if we succumbed to our greatest enemy - the one that lives inside of us.
Below is a link to the full story
CONJURER.many will praise you
for walking on water
far fewerfor getting your feet wet
fewer evenfor when you stood
in muddy puddles
willing an ocean.
- Tienlyn
Please help us will our muddy puddle into the ocean that it was meant to be.
We love you.
After the success of our previous shorts, Asking For A Friend (Kelsey Bollig, 2019) and The Fourth Wall (Kelsey Bollig, 2020), our network of talent has expanded to include the best in the industry, including on our team many people who witnessed Kelsey’s recovery to varying degrees, firsthand.
We hope to draw on this direct experience to relay the inner journey of survival within a surrealist, action-based framework that is as equally entertaining as it is emotional. While Kelsey’s accident may be a unique experience, the quest to survive despite all circumstances is universal.Our budget is carefully planned to support our cast and crew as well as to provide utmost safety precautions surrounding COVID-19. Everyone will be tested prior to shooting and we will be maintaining safety measures such as masks and social distancing when possible.
This film not only has an incredible team around the action-packed production but, it also has an awesome team supporting the heavy Visual Effects splattered throughout the entire film. With your contribution, we will be able to pay our cast and crew as well as secure the VFX resources needed to take this film across the finish line. It takes a lot to show the three levels of hell, and we would hate to skimp on the details (insert evil laughter here).
STRETCH GOALS
Our $25,000 goal is the bare minimum we're aiming for in order to get this film made with the quality desired while paying our cast and crew fairly.
If we raise $30,000, we'll be able to cover the full vision of our visual effects.
If we raise $35,000, we'll be able to cover our festival, distribution, and promotional costs for completing and getting the film into the world and in front of a wider audience.
No matter how much you are able to contribute, your pledge and support means the world to us. We thank you from the bottom of our Kickstarted hearts.
You can also help spread the word about our project by following and sharing our film on Instagram at @Kickstartmyheartthemovie
On June 17th, 2019 I was walking home from the grocery store, a bag of random selects in tow. It was a normal day, the sun was shining, I was smiling and gearing up mentally for a film scout I had in Paris 4 days later. I stopped at a 4-way intersection and waited my turn to cross the street. My mood was in such good spirits, I could have skipped across that intersection - but I only made it 3 steps off the curb.
It took an instant for my life to change. Just one second of someone else’s neglect. 3 steps into this intersection and I was airborne on top of a white SUV after being hit at 30 mps. Given the nature of the hit, I ended up rolling under the car and being run over and dragged 20 ft under the vehicle before the driver stepped on the brakes. I was unconscious for 7 minutes and pulled from underneath the car by civilians who saw the collision. The accident shattered 30 of my bones, punctured both lungs, lacerated my spleen and liver, and ripped the skin from my left arm. I spent over a month in the hospital and spent the next 2 years of my life recovering my body and healing my soul. It took a lot to get here. And if this experience taught me anything, it’s that somewhere in me, there’s a fighter. This fighter scratched and clawed at every obstacle that’s been thrown my way in order to win my life back.
5 months after my accident, I was healthy enough to fly to Paris, cane in hand, to direct the short I was prepping to film the day I was run over. That film was called ‘The Fourth Wall’ and to date, it has been nominated for over 17 awards won 8 awards including the Best Horror Short at the Academy Award Qualifying Hollyshorts.
After a year inside with the rest of the world and 2 years of sitting on this story, I’ve decided that I’m ready to tackle this experience head-on. My account of this event comes to me like a dream - because while it happened so fast, it felt so slow. The minutes it took from the hit to waking up on the concrete were a fight and that fight would continue every day for the next year of my full recovery. ‘Kickstart my Heart’ is the showcase of what that fight feels like through the lens of a horror/action cinephile. It’s a physical manifestation of the levels of hell we travel through when fighting for anything in this world, especially when fighting for our lives.
‘Kickstart my Heart’ is a personal story, but I hope it feels familiar to all who watch.
This film is a dive down multiple states of consciousness. As we begin our journey, all seems normal. Even the sheer act of getting hit by a car presents itself in a way that's a part of this world. Lilly's mind is a different story. Lilly is only slightly comforted when waking up in her childhood home with her supposed sister. We don't have to wait long before we learn that Lilly is not actually in her childhood home and this world is far from normal. The deeper we are taken into Lilly's mind, the more colorful the world becomes. We are taken from the warmth of sunshine shining through glass-paned windows to a neon nightmare.
Incentives
$25
PERSONALIZED MONSTER SHOUTOUT ON SOCIAL
You will receive a personalized shoutout on social media and be assigned a monster from our film!
Who doesn't love a THANK YOU screamed from the rooftops?
$50
INSPIRED POETRY
If you liked our featured poem, written by Tienlyn Jacobson, in our campaign, this incentive is for you!
Send us a photo of yourself and a topic of choice and we will send you a poem inspired by YOU written by our co-producer Tienlyn Jacobson! We will also share this poem on social so we can show the world how much your contribution means to us.
$100
"THANK YOU" IN END CREDITS
Your name will appear in the end credits of the film under the "Special Thanks" section.
$200
SPECIAL THANKS + PERSONALIZED VIDEO
Your name will appear in the "Special Thanks" section in the end credits of the film. You will also receive a personalized thank you video from the Writer/Director Kelsey Bollig.
$5,000
EP SHARED CARD CREDIT
You will receive EP shared card credit on the film.
$10,000
"IN ASSOCIATION WITH" CREDIT
You will receive an "In Association" with credit on the film.
$15,000
YOUR LOGO IN OUR CREDITS
Your business logo will be in our end credits!
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Wishlist
Use the WishList to pledge cash and loan items - or - Make a pledge by selecting an incentive directly.
$25
PERSONALIZED MONSTER SHOUTOUT ON SOCIAL
You will receive a personalized shoutout on social media and be assigned a monster from our film!
Who doesn't love a THANK YOU screamed from the rooftops?
$50
INSPIRED POETRY
If you liked our featured poem, written by Tienlyn Jacobson, in our campaign, this incentive is for you!
Send us a photo of yourself and a topic of choice and we will send you a poem inspired by YOU written by our co-producer Tienlyn Jacobson! We will also share this poem on social so we can show the world how much your contribution means to us.
$100
"THANK YOU" IN END CREDITS
Your name will appear in the end credits of the film under the "Special Thanks" section.
$200
SPECIAL THANKS + PERSONALIZED VIDEO
Your name will appear in the "Special Thanks" section in the end credits of the film. You will also receive a personalized thank you video from the Writer/Director Kelsey Bollig.
$5,000
EP SHARED CARD CREDIT
You will receive EP shared card credit on the film.
$10,000
"IN ASSOCIATION WITH" CREDIT
You will receive an "In Association" with credit on the film.
$15,000
YOUR LOGO IN OUR CREDITS
Your business logo will be in our end credits!
- Updates
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Current Team
About This Team
Kelsey Bollig is an award-winning writer/director currently based out of LA.
Bollig is a fresh yet commanding face in the world of Horror, and entered this industry with a BANG as she landed her first Best Screenplay Award at the tender age of 12, for her Feature, ‘Big Kids Play Manslaughter’ at the Hollywood Shriekfest Film Festival. Years later, she would only garner more acclaim for her first short ‘Asking for a Friend’ which has won 18 awards to date including Best Director at the NOLA Horror Film festival and Best Horror Comedy at the famous Women in Horror Film Festival. ‘Asking for a Friend’ paved the way for Bollig’s second short ‘The Fourth Wall’ starring Lizzie Brochere (American Horror Story: Asylum), Jean-Marc Barr (Nymphomaniac Vol II, The Big Blue), and Roby Schinasi (Gossip Girl) which premiered at Fantasia and has already won Best Horror Film at Nightmares Film Festival, Best Horror at the Academy Award qualifying Hollyshorts Film Festival, and Best Screenplay at the lauded Festival de Cine de Terror de Molins de Rei in Spain. 'The Fourth Wall' is currently featured on AMC's streaming platform Shudder as a part of the prestigious Etheria Film Festival. The festival selects 9 filmmakers out of hundreds of submissions to showcase.Bollig's critical foresight brings to light cultural relevancies using high octane visuals and ambitious storytelling.
Cybill most recently produced THE SILENCING, a thriller starring Nikolaj Coster-Waldau (Game of Thrones), Annabelle Wallis (Peaky Blinders) and Hero Fiennes Tiffin (After) directed by Robin Pront (The Ardennes). The film is a bonafide smash hit. Released across all platforms in summer 2020, Indiewire called it a "breakout success" and Variety reported the "hit" as the top grossing new film release with the highest per-screen average playing in 79 theaters in the U.S. It was the #1 rental for weeks and continued topping the charts two months into its domestic release. The Silencing continues its run worldwide as Universal Pictures' top PVOD title. Slated for a World Premiere at SXSW2020 in the Midnighters program but canceled due to COVID-19, the film was nominated for Best Picture in the Official Fantàstic Competition at Sitges 2020.
Cybill produced two films supporting first-time female directors. Upcoming sci-fi thriller WARNING, starring an ensemble cast including Alex Pettyfer, Alice Eve, Annabelle Wallis, Kylie Bunbury, Patrick Schwarzenegger, Rupert Everett, Thomas Jane and Tomasz Kot. And AKONI, written/directed/produced by and starring Genna Chanelle Hayes about a Nigerian refugee escaping the clutches of Boko Haram only to find himself struggling to integrate into Australian society is premiering Opening Night at the CinefestOZ as an Official Selection 2021. Upcoming announced projects for Cybill include The Mirage Man with Oscar-winner Steven Zaillian producing set up at 20th Century Studios.
Cybill's executive produced PAY THE GHOST starring Nicolas Cage and Sarah Wayne Callies by Academy Award-nominee Uli Edel (The Baader Meinhof Complex) released by RLJ Entertainment, produced AFTER THE DARK (aka The Philosophers) starring James D'Arcy and an ensemble young cast nominated for Best Picture in the Official Fantàstic Competition at Sitges Film Festival 2013 released by Phase4 Films/E1 Studios, and executive produced OLD 37 starring horror vets Bill Mosely and Kane Hodder which made its world premiere at the 2015 HorrorHound Film Festival.
As the partner of her former production company An Olive Branch Productions, she produced CASINO JACK, THE PHILOSOPHERS, AND THE GIRL WHO INVENTED KISSING. For years, Cybill worked with leading VFX company, Mr. X, on mid-budget studio genre projects. Cybill has always supported emerging first-time female filmmakers by producing them into award-winning short films and showcasing their work at film festivals.
After attending the film program at the Claremont Colleges, Jacobson quit over a fight with her professor about Citizen Kane. Jacobson went on to develop her own major, combining communications, sociology, and multimedia art, as well as continuing studies on art theory at NYU. She works as a ghostwriter, story producer, creative producer, and runs the online digital platform, Thoughtful Misfit. Most recently, she was creative producer on the award-winning short, Asking For A Friend (2019) and story producer on the documentary Electric Kingdom, available on Apple TV (2020).
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