Milk Money is about two brothers, who grow up on a dairy farm and come back as adults to try to help their parents through economic and emotional distress.  The older brother is the White biological son, while the younger brother was adopted from China as a baby.  Their desire to save the farm is complicated by their strained relationship.  Each wants to be the good son, but it eventually leads them down a dark path.  If you like gritty family drama/heist movies, then Milk Money is the short movie for you.         

I, Jimmy Nguyen, am the writer and director of Milk Money.  I live on a 13-acre farm in Fauquier County that is less than ten minutes from the two dairy farms where most of our scenes will take place.  Throughout my life I've worked on five different fruit and vegetable farms that sold through CSAs or farmers' markets.  In that time, I never interacted much with dairy farms.  That all changed when I moved to Fauquier County and was surrounded by them.  I've gotten to know some of them as neighbors and have met some through my wife, who is the county's 4-H Extension Agent and helps manage several 4-H livestock clubs.

I want to make Milk Money to show a slice of rural America that people don't often think about or may never get to see (as small family farms continue to dwindle).  It's safe to say that dairy farming and milk are contentious issues.  Regardless of where someone stands on animal farming or nutrition, I want audiences to appreciate the hard work, dedication, and financial and emotional stress that comes with being a family-run dairy operation.  The past few years have been difficult for dairies as prices have bottomed and costs continue to rise forcing many dairies to go out of business.  It's gotten so bad that a Northeast dairy cooperative sent out notices to member farmers that lists contacts for suicide prevention hotlines.  Milk Money offers a glimpse into a family that is struggling with some of these issues.  

Visually and tonally, the movie will be similar to Winter's Bone and Ballast.  Around the farm and inside the houses, there will be clutter and mud, but there is a functional beauty to it.  The characters are hardened and hearty farm people.  Exteriors will feature the grey winter skies and brown pastures of rural Virginia dotted with rusty silos, abandoned barns, and old tractors.  Your ears will be treated to sounds of cows, roosters, generators, tractors, and nighttime stillness.     

Come on this ride with us as we make a great movie and try to get it onto the big screen at film festivals around the country and possibly internationally.  We intend to enter the finished product into local Virginia, D.C. and Maryland film festivals and some of the bigger ones like Sundance, Austin Film Festival, and Palm Springs International Shortfest.    

We intend to begin shooting by late March 2019 and have a finished product by June 2019.  We thank you for your donation and/or general good mojo directed towards this project.  We will deliver a great product for you.