Our story follows Willows, a young woman who has spent her life devoted to her work in the church, but who struggles to accept a key aspect of her identity: that she’s gay. Instead of facing what should be a simple fact of life, she is taught to ignore it, choosing instead to remain the perfect, ideal example of what it means to be “Christian”. However, this all comes crashing down around Willow when she finds herself drawn to Keoni, a new (and proudly queer) member of her Bible study. As her relationship with Keoni deepens, the pressure starts to rise: after all these years, does Willow really want to continue on the “straight and narrow” path that she was taught?

This is a thought-provoking, heartfelt depiction of one girl’s journey navigating identity and faith, and learning to embrace life with all its quirky, confusing twists and turns. You’ll laugh, you’ll cry, and most of all you’ll become deeply enamored with the beautiful, unorthodox love story that is Petrichor.

Meet our protagonist, Willow.

To the world, Willow is a well-dressed, cottagecore-loving Christian woman. Her life is perfect— she’s attending her dream college, sees her loving parents every week, and is girlfriend to the president of the campus’ Bible study. What could possibly have pushed her to the point of believing it was better to live a heavy, heartbreaking lie than be herself?

Willow is a bright, caring, passionate young woman, but in the years leading up to the current day, she has lost much of that vivacity. She is a prime example of the terrifying, but all-too-real progression many people experience as they are indoctrinated into believing they must hide their identities for the sake of not becoming a sinner. But more than that, Willow is an example of the immense strength and bravery the LGBTQ+ community demonstrates by living as their authentic selves, in spite of what many of us were taught.

While this is not a “Christian” film, it is a film that deals heavily with the topic of religion.

The effect of conservative Christianity has been especially harmful to queer individuals. We are seeking to present an alternate narrative: that being gay and faithful are not​ mutually exclusive. Being queer shouldn't determine our outlook on faith. We should have the freedom to be ourselves authentically, even if we call church home.

We want to be clear: this is not about drawing people to the church. Rather, it is an effort to help heal some of the wounds the LGBTQ+ community has sustained from conservative religions, and to give a voice to a small percentage of the population that do find their identities in both the queer community and the church. We simply want to create a constructive space that illustrates how queerness and faith can coexist.

As queer individuals who have struggled with faith and queerness firsthand, our aim is to help people battling with their understanding of queerness and faith to feel empowered to own their full, nuanced identities, and to help spark conversations of where queerness and religion can positively intersect.

Our total budget for the production stage of this film is $13,500. Thankfully, we received a grant from the Regional Arts and Culture Council here in Portland for $5,000, launching us well on our way to our goal!

I understand that a budget of $13,500 for filming seems like a lot, but it is in fact a very small budget to work with while maintaining integrity as contractors of other artists. Actors and crew members, unless they are an “A-lister”, are notoriously underpaid, as is finally coming to the spotlight with the strikes happening in Hollywood. The artists working on this film have dedicated their lives to the art of filmmaking. Though we will be working with what is called a “micro-budget” in film, we want to do our best to pay these artists fairly for their work. It will still be small, but we want it to at least be fair. It’s the least we can do.

Here is a more detailed breakdown of how we plan to use the money:

Now, this plan is for a skeleton budget. The truth is we will ultimately need upwards of $18,000 total to complete this film and do the festival runs. So, when we reach the goal listed on here, please still consider donating further. We lowered our asking budget for this crowdfunding campaign so we have a better chance of making our goal and therefore being able to receive the donations, as we have to reach a set percentage of the goal in order to keep the money. But don’t worry— if we end up not reaching our goal, you will not lose your donation. No donations are charged until, and only when, we reach our goal.

There are so many other ways to support our film in addition to donating money! Are you an individual with friends who might be interested in supporting this film? Do you have a business that may be able to help us? Do you have resources that can help us bring this film to life? You can be as creative in your donation as you want! For example, you can:

• Share about us! Whether that be by social media or word-of-mouth, anything helps!
• Want to go one step further and be credited as a social networker on the film? If you’ve got a good social reach, this may be a great fit for you. Reach out to us and we’ll talk about what that means, and how you can take on that role.
• Donate food to feed the crew on shoot days
• Open your home or business to us to film in
• Clothing to be worn in the film

Or anything else you can think of!

Let us know if you’d like to partner with us! We’d be more than happy to talk.

One of the simplest ways to support the film is by following us on social media! Like, comment under, and share our posts to help us reach a wider audience!

Instagram: @NovelteaFilms

Facebook: Noveltea Films

Tik Tok: @NovelteaFilms

Want to share with others, but don’t know what to say? Here are some examples that you are welcome to copy and paste. We want sharing to be an easy way to support!

Support @NovelteaFilms as they crowdfund for “Petrichor”, an LGBTQ+ short film that takes a unique view on faith and queerness! https://www.seedandspark.com/fund/petrichor

Just watched the pitch video for “Petrichor”! I’m so excited to support this LGBTQ+ production— check it out!

https://www.seedandspark.com/fund/petrichor

We plan to keep the set COVID safe, and will require proof of vaccinations and negative COVID tests each week of shooting.

As mentioned above, we want to sincerely thank the Regional Arts and Culture Council here in Portland, OR for awarding us a $5,000 grant to help us produce this Portland-based film. We truly appreciate your support!