After their mother’s death, Ben and Rosie attempt to steal mattresses to prevent the foreclosure of their house. When the robbery takes a turn, the twins are forced to reckon with their grief.

Months after the death of their mother, townie Rhode Island twins Ben and Rosie are trapped in a cycle of denial and grief. 

As Rosie pretends like everything's fine and Ben is bogged down with inconsolable sadness, the twins' inability to face their issues results in them drowning in bills up to their necks.

Strapped for cash and unable to stay afloat, they now face the loss of the last physical relic of their mother and their only socioeconomic life raft: their house.

But Rosie has a plan: loot a mattress store, steal at least five high-end mattresses, and fence them for cash with the help of the closest thing they have to a godfather: their delinquent Uncle Lloyd. 

In an attempt to further avoid her grieving process and ignorant to Ben's despair, Rosie pushes him into joining her. But unfocused and unprepared, Ben cracks under the pressure and the robbery takes a turn for the worst.

Now Ben and Rosie are trapped, and with no options left, they're forced to reckon with the impact their own selfishness has had on themselves. 

ROSIE (late 20s)

A thrill-seeker with a clownish disposition. She’s ready to lean into any bit. Her unpredictable energy is often masking deeper feelings. Yet, her ability to add levity to any situation helps balance the darkness she often finds herself in.

BEN (late 20s)

A smartass that ultimately wants to do the right thing. He often resorts to keeping his mouth shut and his feelings in. Despite sometimes being a grump, he tends to be pragmatic and honest. In many ways, he’s the yin to Rosie’s yang.

UNCLE LLOYD (60s)

A good guy who’s never made a good choice in his life. He has a history of ne’er do well-ism that’s ultimately a by-product of arrested development. He’d give you the shirt off his back even if it was covered in mysterious stains.

THE CLERK (early 20s)

An eager young buck with a desire to please. His only goals are to do a good job and earn the respect of his boss. He has a secret lust for mattresses, too.

MS PALMIERI (late 50s)

A grumpy old shop-owner who’s been beaten down by the woes of running a small business. Her laissez-faire attitude has left her feeling like a robbery is more of an inconvenience than anything else.

This story meets at a crossroads between where we’re going in our lives and where we’ve been.

Telling this story in Rhode Island matters to me not only because I want to shed a light on my home state, but because it’s what I know. There is nobody better suited to telling this story than myself because of how heavily it’s influenced by the Rhode Islanders I grew up with and the lenses through which they see the world.

Recently, our team has dealt with intense grief in many forms. Trying to understand how you’re supposed to “keep going” and how self-involved that process can be has been at the forefront of our minds. Working on this has been a cathartic experience in understanding how we’ve suppressed our own feelings, and we seek to capture that strife within our film.

MATTRESS EXPRESS is not just a heist film. We intend to capture our audience with comedy and thrill to explore grief, emotional repression, and complex family dynamics, and we believe that our style of filmmaking is best suited to do so.

MATTRESS EXPRESS garners inspiration from 70s "bad criminal" films and pulpy 90s movies. Key films like DOG DAY AFTERNOON and FARGO have informed our interest in taking on a genre-bending crime film with subversive themes. The film's essence combines the paranoia of GOOD TIME with the quippy and absurd humor of BOTTLE ROCKET, and subverts the audience with an emotional root akin to MANCHESTER BY THE SEA.

We want to take you on a ride, and to do so, we'll channel the distinct 70s filmic look with intention in our lens, color, and compositional choices. Extremely tight framing, lots of camera tracking, and climactic pacing is our focus in an effort to create claustrophobia and paranoia that will seldom give the audience a chance to catch up with the action. 

The sogbots team is a group of filmmakers who are dedicated to building community and expanding their vocabulary of expression through film.

I’ve been directing since I was 18 years old. In college, alongside the rest of the sogbots team, I created films with a camera in hand, a rough script, and no money. Alongside the rest of the team, I realized we were able to make shorts that spoke to people without taking ourselves too seriously, and we decided to continue to pursue the medium through that lens.

Sogbots has been working as a collective for three years and has created award-winning short films, music videos, promotional pieces, and has produced a sold-out film festival that was featured in Variety.

Joining our campaign is an investment in early-stage filmmakers on our team and a commitment to fair work environments. Film sets have a long and complicated history of labor exploitation, and our set is prioritizing fair compensation to set a precedent for a new generation of filmmakers.

Right now, we're in the pre-production phase of the film where we finalize our locations, our cast, our crew, and everything else. Our film will shoot in late August for four days in Rhode Island. Covid compliance on our set will require pre-shoot testing and mandatory indoor masking. The funds raised through this campaign will help us:

• Pay our talent and crew properly
• Cover the costs of transportation to and from our set
• Support our gear rentals, props, and wardrobe
• Cover PPE to keep us safe
• Pay an editor to help us cut the movie

Your contribution helps carve a path for us to continue creating impactful pieces and reshaping the film industry for the better.

STRETCH GOALS

Our $23,425 goal is the minimum needed to get the film made to look good, feel good, and ensure fair treatment of our crew.

If we raise $26,000, we'll have contigency and be able to cover our film festival festival fees.

If we raise $27,000, we'll have greater flexibility with gear rentals
If we raise $29,000, we'll be able to increase the rates of our actors, our producers, our DP, and additional crew members.

OTHER WAYS YOU CAN HELP

Follow our campaign on Seed & Spark. It won't cost you anything, and every follower gained helps us get closer to accessing additional perks that will help our project during and after production.

Keep an eye on us and tell your friends. Follow us on instagram @mattressexpressthefilm and stay up to date with our posts and stories, and reshare our posts to help get the word out about our campaign. No idea what to say? Try something like this:

Help @sogbots execute the best bad heist of all time by supporting their upcoming genre-bending crime film, #MattressExpress. Show them some love @seedandspark www.seedandspark.com/fund/mattress-express

Share this with someone you know. Text about it, share it on instagram, heck--you could even email it! Anything is a massive help to us. 

And don't forget after all this -- FOLLOW US ON SEED & SPARK! Your follow really, really helps.

THANK YOU ALL FOR YOUR HELP! We can't wait to make this film a reality.