POETRY IN MOTION

Like so many people, I've watched the heartbreaking reality of school shootings and wondered what happens after the headlines fade.

We mourn the lives lost. We struggle to understand the unimaginable. But we rarely see the years that follow for the families left behind.

I didn't want to make a film about violence.

I wanted to make a film about love that refuses to disappear.

Poetry In Motion follows Sebastian, a poet and college professor who has spent years frozen by grief after losing his family in a school shooting. When he impulsively decides to join a charity 5K, what begins as an ill-advised run becomes something much more: a journey through memory, loss, friendship, family and an unexpected opportunity to begin again.

The film blends humor with heartbreak because that's how life often works. Even in our darkest moments, something, or someone, can surprise us.

Poetry In Motion was inspired by the resilience of families who somehow find the strength to keep living after unimaginable loss. Sebastian's story is fictional, but the emotions behind it are very real.

At its heart, this isn't a story about a school shooting. The violence happens long before our story begins.

This is a story about what comes after. Can we carry grief without allowing it to define the rest of our lives? How do friendship, family, art and unexpected human connections help us find our way back? And when life unexpectedly offers us another starting line, can we find the courage to cross it?

Those questions became the poem that is at the heart of Poetry In Motion.

Kevin, Jenifer & CJ celebrate the filming wrap!

For more than 30 years, storytelling has been at the center of our lives.

My wife and forever collaborator, Jenifer, my best friend and longtime creative collaborator C.J. Hatch, and I have worked across theater, film, radio and television, telling stories that entertain, challenge and bring people together.

I've spent much of my creative life as a playwright, actor and theater director. I've always believed the stories that stay with us aren't the ones that tell us what to think. They're the ones that allow us to recognize a little of ourselves in someone else's journey.

Poetry In Motion marks an exciting new chapter for us: our first independent film through Silk Purse Collective.

We have brought together an extraordinary group of Atlanta-area actors, filmmakers and artists to turn a story that began on the page and progressed into something we are incredibly proud to put on the screen.

A Note on Responsible Use of GenAI

We used GenAI to create our North River State 5K Fun Run graphics, our poster and the graphics to promote Poetry In Motion. AI was not used in filming or post-production. Permission to use performer image for our poster was requested and granted.

The film is finished. Now we need your help getting it seen.

We began submitting Poetry In Motion to festivals in late July 2026. Within our first week of submissions, we received our first two Official Selections.

Poetry In Motion will screen at the Nightpiece International Film Festival, part of the Edinburgh Fringe Festival on August 25th and The Las Vegas Premier Film Festival in September. We continue to submit to new festivals for screening opportunities, and this is only the beginning of what we hope will be a year-long festival journey.

That early response has reinforced our belief that Sebastian's story can connect with audiences well beyond the people who made it.

Principal photography and post-production are complete. The film exists because our cast, crew, collaborators and self funding helped us get this far. This campaign is about giving the finished film the opportunity to find its audience.

Funds raised through Seed&Spark will help support:

• Festival submissions as we continue expanding our festival strategy in the U.S. and internationally
• Festival exhibition and delivery, including DCPs and other required screening formats
• Travel and attendance when we're invited to festivals, screenings and filmmaker events
• Marketing and publicity, including trailers, posters, social media, press materials and festival promotion
• Accessibility, including captions and festival-ready deliverables
• Audience-building and screenings that allow us to bring the film directly to communities

Every contribution moves Poetry In Motion one step farther down the road.

Funding Poetry In Motion and What Comes Next

Reaching our initial goal will support the festival journey already underway. But our vision for Poetry In Motion goes well beyond a handful of screenings.

We want to spend the next year building an audience for this film.

Additional funding will allow us to expand our domestic and international festival submissions, attend screenings with our cast and creative team, increase publicity and social media outreach, pursue special and community screenings, and continue finding new ways to put Poetry In Motion in front of audiences throughout its year-long festival journey and beyond.

And this campaign is about more than one film.

Poetry In Motion is the first production from Silk Purse Collective, but we're already developing what's next. Our next short film, working title Kissing Larry Anton, is in development, and we've begun the early creative work on our first feature-length film.

Supporting Poetry In Motion helps us build the audience, relationships, experience, and momentum to keep telling stories.

This may be our first film but it's the beginning, not the finish line.

Our first supporters will have an opportunity to celebrate with us at our private screening at the Aurora Cineplex in Roswell, Georgia, on August 29.

From there, the film will continue its festival journey. We'll keep our supporters connected through festival announcements, photographs, behind-the-scenes stories and updates from screenings along the way.

Because festivals often require premiere status or restrict public availability, we won't immediately release the entire film publicly online. Once the festival window allows, qualifying supporters will receive the private viewing access associated with their campaign incentive.

You'll be part of the journey from the beginning.

There's a reason running became the metaphor at the center of this film.

Sebastian believes he's simply trying to finish a race. What he discovers is that moving forward sometimes has nothing to do with reaching a finish line.

It means choosing to start again.

That's also where Poetry In Motion finds itself today.

We finished the film.

Now we're standing at the next starting line.

And we'd love for you to cross it with us.

There are three ways you can help:

PLEDGE

Every contribution, at every level, helps us bring the film to more audiences. Click on the link to pledge - Seed&Spark for Poetry In Motion

FOLLOW

Follow our Seed&Spark campaign and Silk Purse Collective as the festival journey unfolds.

SHARE

You may know someone who connects deeply with this story, loves independent film, supports Atlanta artists, or simply believes stories of hope deserve to be told. Please send the campaign their way.

Copy, paste and share:

"I'm supporting Poetry In Motion, a new independent short film from Atlanta's Silk Purse Collective about grief, resilience, family and the courage to begin again. The film is already earning festival selections. Help send it on its festival journey and bring Sebastian's story to audiences everywhere."

Thank you for believing in independent filmmakers, in meaningful stories, and in the possibility of beginning again.

— Kevin Michael Renshaw

Writer & Director

Poetry In Motion

silkpursecollective.com

Poetry In Motion - Seed&Spark campaign