My Fellow Man
New York City, New York | Film Short
Romantic Comedy
A below-the-line entertainment worker is canvassing a New York City park for universal health care when a stranger crashes into her path, leaving her and a passing jogger to get the guy back on his feet... even though he's pretty annoying!
My Fellow Man
New York City, New York | Film Short
Romantic Comedy
1 Campaigns | New York, United States
20 supporters | followers
Enter the amount you would like to pledge
$2,113
Goal: $5,000 for production
A below-the-line entertainment worker is canvassing a New York City park for universal health care when a stranger crashes into her path, leaving her and a passing jogger to get the guy back on his feet... even though he's pretty annoying!
About The Project
- The Story
- Wishlist
- Updates
- The Team
- Community
Mission Statement
The Story
My Fellow Man stars Chloe Troast, Alex Mandell, John Lutz, and Daniel Forbes Jr.!
What happens? A television production worker is canvassing a New York City park for universal health care when a ridiculous man rollerblades down a hill and crashes into her path. It's then up to her and a passing jogger—who happens to be a civil rights attorney—to help, but the two headstrong do-gooders have differing opinions about the best course of action. It's an opposites-attract meet-cute that explores civic responsibility with humor and heart.
My Fellow Man represents the kind of popular films I want to direct: smart and sincere stories with the soul of a 90s rom-com and the consciousness of 2026. For the last decade, nihilism and cynicism have cast an outsized shadow over our industry. Many directors seem to want credit just for showing us how bad things are. I see it and feel it, too. But we need more than diagnosis. We need artists who want to make things better and are willing to fight for it.
Amidst a landscape of dark satires and gauzy rom-coms, I feel a generational hunger for substance. Young people want our own Julia Roberts movies, where the charm of My Best Friend's Wedding and the conviction of Erin Brockovich exist not as separate genres, but as two sides of the same world. Because today, politics aren't confined to the extraordinary tales of outsider heroes. They ripple through every part of everyday life, and my generation wants to see that reality reflected in our art.
My goal is to execute a contemporary romantic comedy film that spotlights romantic and comedic chemistry between skilled actors, demonstrates my team's ability to create an entertaining, “mainstream” film, premieres at top American festivals, establishes relationships with financiers for future projects, and raises awareness for the New York Health Act!
A little bit about me (writer/director Caroline O'Riordan): I'm a writer, director, and health care activist from Massachusetts who writes catalyzing comedies about contemporary American life.
Professionally, I've been working in TV production in various capacities since 2018, recently returning to work on the third season of Netflix's The Four Seasons. Previous credits include assisting in the writers’ rooms for Acapulco S3 and Moonfall S1, and assisting producer Jerry Kupfer on the 30 Rock Reunion Special and Hunters S1 & 2. I also worked for director David Wain on Miracle Workers S4 and in development on a romantic comedy feature for Miramax. Before my television career, I studied photography and worked as a producer in New York’s commercial photography industry.
I developed an erotic thriller pilot, Matthew Linity in Crisis, for the Tannenbaum Company, and was awarded Best Director at the 2024 Broad Humor Film Festival for my short film Human Connection, which starred Fernando Carsa of AppleTV+’s Acapulco. The film received an honorable mention at the Big Teeth Small Shorts Festival and screened at the Highland Park Independent Film Festival.
Organizing: Inspired by the surge of labor activism surrounding IATSE's 2021 near-strike, I founded Hollywood4CalCare in 2022 with the goal of organizing our unions to pass California's single-payer health care policy: CalCare.
The group has since grown to dozens of members and thousands of supporters, with worker-led campaigns running across IATSE, SAG-AFTRA, and the WGA. We've helped elect CalCare-supporting leaders and earned official union endorsements from IATSE Locals 705 and 871. IATSE District 2 just passed its first resolution in support of *state* single-payer health care.
Now back in New York, I have expanded the campaign to include organizing for our own single-payer bill: the New York Health Act. Both CalCare and the NYHA need our national and local entertainment unions to get in the fight to pass these bills. Thousands of entertainment workers are losing their union health insurance due to lack of work. The multinational corporations that now produce content have been outsourcing our jobs to countries with lower labor costs: countries that provide health care to their citizens. The WGA, DGA, and SAG-AFTRA just forfeited a year of their contract cycles in part to fund their flailing health plans. And so I've expanded the campaign nationwide, with a new title: Entertainment4SinglePayer.
I'm looking forward to continuing this work across New York and California to finally take health insurance off the bargaining table and make health care a human right by passing the New York Health Act and CalCare!
Wishlist
Use the WishList to Pledge cash and Loan items - or - Make a pledge by selecting an Incentive directly.
Crew Labor
Costs $3,000
Help me pay the craftspeople who are going to turn this story into a film. Budget is greater than $3k, but anything will help! Thank you.
Cast
Costs $2,000
Please help me pay my amazing cast! The budget is greater than $2k but anything will help.
Direct link:
Share this update!
About This Team
Writer/Director CAROLINE O’RIORDAN is a filmmaker from Massachusetts who writes catalyzing comedies about contemporary American life. Her personal projects include developing an erotic thriller about the rightwing “masculinity crisis” for the Tannenbaum Company, and the short film HUMAN CONNECTION, for which she was awarded Best Director at the 2024 Broad Humor Film Festival. She has been working in TV production and writers’ rooms since 2018, recently returning to work on the second season of Netflix's The Four Seasons. Other notable credits include assisting director David Wain. Before her television career, Caroline studied photography and worked as a producer in New York’s commercial photo industry. She founded Hollywood4CalCare, the group organizing our industry to make health care a human right in California.
Cinematographer REMINGTON LONG is a cinematographer from rural Northern California. A passion for camera and documentary filmmaking has led her work to be screened at the Sundance Film Festival, the Museum of Modern Art, the IFC Center, the Nitehawk Cinema and more. Remington was named by Zeiss Cinematography as one of the most “influential cinematographers” at the 2023 Sundance Film Festival. Her first feature as cinematographer, Sincerely, Los Angeles is one of Ebony Media’s inaugural projects and will be released in 2025. Remington is a member of the International Cinematographer’s Guild, IATSE Local 600 and a graduate of New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts. Outside of filmmaking, she enjoys medium format photography, bass fishing and DJ'ing at small venues around Brooklyn.
Line Producer ALEX MARTIN is a 15-year veteran of the New York film & television industry. He’s worked on production teams for almost every major network and streamer, while also working as an independent producer of smaller indie projects. His credits include The Irishman, The Dark Knight Rises, West Side Story, Moonrise Kingdom, Pose, and American Horror Story. He most recently worked as an Assistant Location Manager on the first two seasons of Netflix’s The Four Seasons.
Creative Producer ELIZABETH TURNBULL is a producer based in New York City. She started her career in finance, analyzing the credit world on both the micro and macro levels, before transitioning to her true passion: entertainment. She began in the mailroom at UTA and worked her way through accounting, ventures, and theater before landing a role in the TV Lit department. After her time at the agency, she joined the production company Little Stranger Inc., where she has worked on various productions and projects including the comedy and musical Mean Girls, Girls5eva, and The Fall and Rise of Reggie Dinkins. She is currently working on the second season of the Netflix hit series The Four Seasons.
Current Team
Incentives
- The Story
- Wishlist
- Updates
- The Team
- Community
Mission Statement
The Story
My Fellow Man stars Chloe Troast, Alex Mandell, John Lutz, and Daniel Forbes Jr.!
What happens? A television production worker is canvassing a New York City park for universal health care when a ridiculous man rollerblades down a hill and crashes into her path. It's then up to her and a passing jogger—who happens to be a civil rights attorney—to help, but the two headstrong do-gooders have differing opinions about the best course of action. It's an opposites-attract meet-cute that explores civic responsibility with humor and heart.
My Fellow Man represents the kind of popular films I want to direct: smart and sincere stories with the soul of a 90s rom-com and the consciousness of 2026. For the last decade, nihilism and cynicism have cast an outsized shadow over our industry. Many directors seem to want credit just for showing us how bad things are. I see it and feel it, too. But we need more than diagnosis. We need artists who want to make things better and are willing to fight for it.
Amidst a landscape of dark satires and gauzy rom-coms, I feel a generational hunger for substance. Young people want our own Julia Roberts movies, where the charm of My Best Friend's Wedding and the conviction of Erin Brockovich exist not as separate genres, but as two sides of the same world. Because today, politics aren't confined to the extraordinary tales of outsider heroes. They ripple through every part of everyday life, and my generation wants to see that reality reflected in our art.
My goal is to execute a contemporary romantic comedy film that spotlights romantic and comedic chemistry between skilled actors, demonstrates my team's ability to create an entertaining, “mainstream” film, premieres at top American festivals, establishes relationships with financiers for future projects, and raises awareness for the New York Health Act!
A little bit about me (writer/director Caroline O'Riordan): I'm a writer, director, and health care activist from Massachusetts who writes catalyzing comedies about contemporary American life.
Professionally, I've been working in TV production in various capacities since 2018, recently returning to work on the third season of Netflix's The Four Seasons. Previous credits include assisting in the writers’ rooms for Acapulco S3 and Moonfall S1, and assisting producer Jerry Kupfer on the 30 Rock Reunion Special and Hunters S1 & 2. I also worked for director David Wain on Miracle Workers S4 and in development on a romantic comedy feature for Miramax. Before my television career, I studied photography and worked as a producer in New York’s commercial photography industry.
I developed an erotic thriller pilot, Matthew Linity in Crisis, for the Tannenbaum Company, and was awarded Best Director at the 2024 Broad Humor Film Festival for my short film Human Connection, which starred Fernando Carsa of AppleTV+’s Acapulco. The film received an honorable mention at the Big Teeth Small Shorts Festival and screened at the Highland Park Independent Film Festival.
Organizing: Inspired by the surge of labor activism surrounding IATSE's 2021 near-strike, I founded Hollywood4CalCare in 2022 with the goal of organizing our unions to pass California's single-payer health care policy: CalCare.
The group has since grown to dozens of members and thousands of supporters, with worker-led campaigns running across IATSE, SAG-AFTRA, and the WGA. We've helped elect CalCare-supporting leaders and earned official union endorsements from IATSE Locals 705 and 871. IATSE District 2 just passed its first resolution in support of *state* single-payer health care.
Now back in New York, I have expanded the campaign to include organizing for our own single-payer bill: the New York Health Act. Both CalCare and the NYHA need our national and local entertainment unions to get in the fight to pass these bills. Thousands of entertainment workers are losing their union health insurance due to lack of work. The multinational corporations that now produce content have been outsourcing our jobs to countries with lower labor costs: countries that provide health care to their citizens. The WGA, DGA, and SAG-AFTRA just forfeited a year of their contract cycles in part to fund their flailing health plans. And so I've expanded the campaign nationwide, with a new title: Entertainment4SinglePayer.
I'm looking forward to continuing this work across New York and California to finally take health insurance off the bargaining table and make health care a human right by passing the New York Health Act and CalCare!
Wishlist
Use the WishList to Pledge cash and Loan items - or - Make a pledge by selecting an Incentive directly.
Crew Labor
Costs $3,000
Help me pay the craftspeople who are going to turn this story into a film. Budget is greater than $3k, but anything will help! Thank you.
Cast
Costs $2,000
Please help me pay my amazing cast! The budget is greater than $2k but anything will help.
Direct link:
Share this update!
About This Team
Writer/Director CAROLINE O’RIORDAN is a filmmaker from Massachusetts who writes catalyzing comedies about contemporary American life. Her personal projects include developing an erotic thriller about the rightwing “masculinity crisis” for the Tannenbaum Company, and the short film HUMAN CONNECTION, for which she was awarded Best Director at the 2024 Broad Humor Film Festival. She has been working in TV production and writers’ rooms since 2018, recently returning to work on the second season of Netflix's The Four Seasons. Other notable credits include assisting director David Wain. Before her television career, Caroline studied photography and worked as a producer in New York’s commercial photo industry. She founded Hollywood4CalCare, the group organizing our industry to make health care a human right in California.
Cinematographer REMINGTON LONG is a cinematographer from rural Northern California. A passion for camera and documentary filmmaking has led her work to be screened at the Sundance Film Festival, the Museum of Modern Art, the IFC Center, the Nitehawk Cinema and more. Remington was named by Zeiss Cinematography as one of the most “influential cinematographers” at the 2023 Sundance Film Festival. Her first feature as cinematographer, Sincerely, Los Angeles is one of Ebony Media’s inaugural projects and will be released in 2025. Remington is a member of the International Cinematographer’s Guild, IATSE Local 600 and a graduate of New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts. Outside of filmmaking, she enjoys medium format photography, bass fishing and DJ'ing at small venues around Brooklyn.
Line Producer ALEX MARTIN is a 15-year veteran of the New York film & television industry. He’s worked on production teams for almost every major network and streamer, while also working as an independent producer of smaller indie projects. His credits include The Irishman, The Dark Knight Rises, West Side Story, Moonrise Kingdom, Pose, and American Horror Story. He most recently worked as an Assistant Location Manager on the first two seasons of Netflix’s The Four Seasons.
Creative Producer ELIZABETH TURNBULL is a producer based in New York City. She started her career in finance, analyzing the credit world on both the micro and macro levels, before transitioning to her true passion: entertainment. She began in the mailroom at UTA and worked her way through accounting, ventures, and theater before landing a role in the TV Lit department. After her time at the agency, she joined the production company Little Stranger Inc., where she has worked on various productions and projects including the comedy and musical Mean Girls, Girls5eva, and The Fall and Rise of Reggie Dinkins. She is currently working on the second season of the Netflix hit series The Four Seasons.