Mathilde Who Is Obsessed With Christmas
Los Angeles, California | Film Short
Comedy
We need your support to make a movie about a young woman struggling to make it in the gig economy while keeping up positive spirits. Many artists are struggling & hustling to make their dreams come true while paying the bills & taking care of their mental health — Mathilde is their champion!
Mathilde Who Is Obsessed With Christmas
Los Angeles, California | Film Short
Comedy
1 Campaigns | California, United States
Green Light
This campaign raised $1,740 for production. Follow the filmmaker to receive future updates on this project.
26 supporters | followers
Enter the amount you would like to pledge
We need your support to make a movie about a young woman struggling to make it in the gig economy while keeping up positive spirits. Many artists are struggling & hustling to make their dreams come true while paying the bills & taking care of their mental health — Mathilde is their champion!
About The Project
- The Story
- Wishlist
- Updates
- The Team
- Community
Mission Statement
The Story
It’s a warm Christmas Eve in Los Angeles, California. Mathilde is in her mid twenties, in that uncomfortable working-young-adult state in which she doesn’t need to go home and yet doesn’t have the money to really get anywhere else. It’s the eve of Mathilde’s favorite day and she wants to leave the house, so she accepts a gig working on a porn set. Given that it’s Christmas Eve, the crew is bare bones and struggling to get a Christmas-themed porno up and running, meaning that Mathilde has to pick up the slack by taking over audio — on top of her makeup and craft services. She decides through every odd or unpleasant moment to stay positive and bring about Christmas cheer to her bemused and confused co-workers. Our story takes you start to finish through Mathilde’s Christmas Eve and her joy and heartbreak in the least festive of places.
***essentially the spirit of the project***
As another transplant to Los Angeles, I first got the idea for Mathilde’s story last summer. I was tired of the constant bright weather while I was feeling upset — all I wanted to do was pretend there was a snowstorm outside and listen to Bing Crosby’s White Christmas album. I came up with the who first — who would be someone just like this, but every single day? I played with a couple of ideas, our promo video being the first actual iteration of the Mathilde idea (featuring myself — I'm clearly not a therapist or an actor). Inspired by Tangerine and Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt, the story of Mathilde emerged. She’s not somewhere that remotely looks like her idea of Christmas but she is dedicated to her mission of bringing to life the joy of Christmas wherever she goes.
Tangerine — A very un-Christmas Christmas movie! That's why we love it.
So why this story and why now? We need Mathilde's story because it touches on the isolation of the gig economy, the silent labor that women take on (particularly in entertainment), and womens' ability to keep up an unrelenting optimism in a cold world. It has been a long time since we've had a Christmas classic and we've never had one about a woman working in production. If we want to change the way the entertainment industry sees women, we need to show them Mathilde working harder than her coworkers without complaint.
Our logo + sticker design!
And we've got some great incentives for your donations! Including but not limited to producer credits, a digital link to the film, and unique Mathilde Who Is Obsessed With Christmas t-shirts designed by Jillian Nelson (see options below).
Our standard logo tee.
Who doesn't love some Christmas tree nips?!
Stay cozy this holiday season ;)
More nips!
To tell a goofy story about a complicated woman, I teamed up with my incredibly capable and impressive producers Kristiana Gomez and Keaton Shapiro to begin figuring out how to put this in front of the camera. I enlisted Stephanie Pumilia as my sharp and detail-oriented director of photography and found the talented Magdalena Fischbacher who brings Mathilde fully to life. We’re a bunch of scrappy women who need your help telling the story of that person in your life who’s a little obsessed with Christmas (and we love her for it).
— Pilar Duralde, Director, Writer, and Producer of Mathilde Who Is Obsessed With Christmas
Wishlist
Use the WishList to Pledge cash and Loan items - or - Make a pledge by selecting an Incentive directly.
Insurance & Permits
Costs $1,000
The majority of what we raise with this campaign will go towards insurance & permits.
Craft Services
Costs $600
We need to feed a cast and crew of 30 for 2 days. They be hungry!!
Wardrobe
Costs $400
We need to buy some sexy Christmas lingerie. It's more expensive than ya think!
Share this update!
About This Team
Pilar Duralde — Writer/Director
Pilar decided to write this because she wanted to curl up and listen to Christmas music in July (can we blame her?). She is passionate about writing and looks up to female writers who tell stories of layered characters who aren’t afraid of raunchiness like Diablo Cody, Jenji Kohan, and Issa Rae. Her goal is to make you laugh, cry, and empathize with the Christmas-obsessed people in your life.
Kristiana Gomez — Producer
Kristiana Gomez is the producer of Mathilde Who Is Obsessed With Christmas. While majoring in Film Production at Emerson College in Boston, she wrote & directed her thesis film, Mia, which won a $2,000 grant and is currently in the festival circuit. She has also produced two other independent short films, All The Difference and Pill. She loves telling stories about women who keep their spirits up against all odds. She currently works as production coordinator at a VR company while freelancing in graphic design, photography, and videography. Favorite female-centered comedies include Legally Blonde (don’t hate, you know that movie is incredible), Clueless, Obvious Child, and The Devil Wears Prada.
Keaton Shapiro — Producer
Keaton Shapiro is the producer of Mathilde Who Is Obsessed With Christmas. Born in New York, raised in Los Angeles, Keaton Shapiro has worked bicoastally in the world of theater, dance, and film. She is a graduate of Carnegie Mellon University with a Bachelors of Humanities and Arts in Linguistics and Dramaturgy. Her career has centered primarily around theatre, shifting from the stage, to backstage, to production through her work within multiple theaters and companies, such as the Carnegie Mellon School of Drama, The Wooster Group, REDCAT, Scotch'n'Soda Theatre, and PLAY LA Workshop where she serves as Festival Producer and Program Coordinator. She has a passion for storytelling media and has been working hard as a theater and short film producer in LA for the past year.
Stephanie Pumilia — Director of Photography
Born and raised in New Orleans, Stephanie has a love for all things spooky, supernatural,
and unusual. She’s passionate about all aspects of film from writing to editing but finds
true beauty in storytelling through cinematography. For her, cinematography explores
human emotion in a visceral and poignant way drawing you in and letting you experience
other people’s lives.
Current Team
Incentives
- The Story
- Wishlist
- Updates
- The Team
- Community
Mission Statement
The Story
It’s a warm Christmas Eve in Los Angeles, California. Mathilde is in her mid twenties, in that uncomfortable working-young-adult state in which she doesn’t need to go home and yet doesn’t have the money to really get anywhere else. It’s the eve of Mathilde’s favorite day and she wants to leave the house, so she accepts a gig working on a porn set. Given that it’s Christmas Eve, the crew is bare bones and struggling to get a Christmas-themed porno up and running, meaning that Mathilde has to pick up the slack by taking over audio — on top of her makeup and craft services. She decides through every odd or unpleasant moment to stay positive and bring about Christmas cheer to her bemused and confused co-workers. Our story takes you start to finish through Mathilde’s Christmas Eve and her joy and heartbreak in the least festive of places.
***essentially the spirit of the project***
As another transplant to Los Angeles, I first got the idea for Mathilde’s story last summer. I was tired of the constant bright weather while I was feeling upset — all I wanted to do was pretend there was a snowstorm outside and listen to Bing Crosby’s White Christmas album. I came up with the who first — who would be someone just like this, but every single day? I played with a couple of ideas, our promo video being the first actual iteration of the Mathilde idea (featuring myself — I'm clearly not a therapist or an actor). Inspired by Tangerine and Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt, the story of Mathilde emerged. She’s not somewhere that remotely looks like her idea of Christmas but she is dedicated to her mission of bringing to life the joy of Christmas wherever she goes.
Tangerine — A very un-Christmas Christmas movie! That's why we love it.
So why this story and why now? We need Mathilde's story because it touches on the isolation of the gig economy, the silent labor that women take on (particularly in entertainment), and womens' ability to keep up an unrelenting optimism in a cold world. It has been a long time since we've had a Christmas classic and we've never had one about a woman working in production. If we want to change the way the entertainment industry sees women, we need to show them Mathilde working harder than her coworkers without complaint.
Our logo + sticker design!
And we've got some great incentives for your donations! Including but not limited to producer credits, a digital link to the film, and unique Mathilde Who Is Obsessed With Christmas t-shirts designed by Jillian Nelson (see options below).
Our standard logo tee.
Who doesn't love some Christmas tree nips?!
Stay cozy this holiday season ;)
More nips!
To tell a goofy story about a complicated woman, I teamed up with my incredibly capable and impressive producers Kristiana Gomez and Keaton Shapiro to begin figuring out how to put this in front of the camera. I enlisted Stephanie Pumilia as my sharp and detail-oriented director of photography and found the talented Magdalena Fischbacher who brings Mathilde fully to life. We’re a bunch of scrappy women who need your help telling the story of that person in your life who’s a little obsessed with Christmas (and we love her for it).
— Pilar Duralde, Director, Writer, and Producer of Mathilde Who Is Obsessed With Christmas
Wishlist
Use the WishList to Pledge cash and Loan items - or - Make a pledge by selecting an Incentive directly.
Insurance & Permits
Costs $1,000
The majority of what we raise with this campaign will go towards insurance & permits.
Craft Services
Costs $600
We need to feed a cast and crew of 30 for 2 days. They be hungry!!
Wardrobe
Costs $400
We need to buy some sexy Christmas lingerie. It's more expensive than ya think!
Share this update!
About This Team
Pilar Duralde — Writer/Director
Pilar decided to write this because she wanted to curl up and listen to Christmas music in July (can we blame her?). She is passionate about writing and looks up to female writers who tell stories of layered characters who aren’t afraid of raunchiness like Diablo Cody, Jenji Kohan, and Issa Rae. Her goal is to make you laugh, cry, and empathize with the Christmas-obsessed people in your life.
Kristiana Gomez — Producer
Kristiana Gomez is the producer of Mathilde Who Is Obsessed With Christmas. While majoring in Film Production at Emerson College in Boston, she wrote & directed her thesis film, Mia, which won a $2,000 grant and is currently in the festival circuit. She has also produced two other independent short films, All The Difference and Pill. She loves telling stories about women who keep their spirits up against all odds. She currently works as production coordinator at a VR company while freelancing in graphic design, photography, and videography. Favorite female-centered comedies include Legally Blonde (don’t hate, you know that movie is incredible), Clueless, Obvious Child, and The Devil Wears Prada.
Keaton Shapiro — Producer
Keaton Shapiro is the producer of Mathilde Who Is Obsessed With Christmas. Born in New York, raised in Los Angeles, Keaton Shapiro has worked bicoastally in the world of theater, dance, and film. She is a graduate of Carnegie Mellon University with a Bachelors of Humanities and Arts in Linguistics and Dramaturgy. Her career has centered primarily around theatre, shifting from the stage, to backstage, to production through her work within multiple theaters and companies, such as the Carnegie Mellon School of Drama, The Wooster Group, REDCAT, Scotch'n'Soda Theatre, and PLAY LA Workshop where she serves as Festival Producer and Program Coordinator. She has a passion for storytelling media and has been working hard as a theater and short film producer in LA for the past year.
Stephanie Pumilia — Director of Photography
Born and raised in New Orleans, Stephanie has a love for all things spooky, supernatural,
and unusual. She’s passionate about all aspects of film from writing to editing but finds
true beauty in storytelling through cinematography. For her, cinematography explores
human emotion in a visceral and poignant way drawing you in and letting you experience
other people’s lives.