Running Amidst
Los Angeles, California | Film Short
Drama
RUNNING AMIDST centers a the struggle to find connection without a sound place to call home. It’s a story of life, resilience, and accepting life's uncertainty. This film aims to evoke empathy and understanding for those around us, and reaffirm the importance of family, no matter the circumstances.
Running Amidst
Los Angeles, California | Film Short
Drama
1 Campaigns | California, United States
Green Light
This campaign raised $28,911 for development. Follow the filmmaker to receive future updates on this project.
63 supporters | followers
Enter the amount you would like to pledge
RUNNING AMIDST centers a the struggle to find connection without a sound place to call home. It’s a story of life, resilience, and accepting life's uncertainty. This film aims to evoke empathy and understanding for those around us, and reaffirm the importance of family, no matter the circumstances.
About The Project
- The Story
- Wishlist
- Updates
- The Team
- Community
Mission Statement
The Story
It's estimated one in thirty youth from the ages of 13 to 17 in the United States experience homelessness each year. There are over 200,000 of them in California experiencing this annually. These are teens and emerging adults who’ve aged out of foster care, fled abusive homes, been rejected for their gender or sexuality, or simply fallen through the cracks of a city with millions walking the street each day.
They often go unseen: couch-surfing, sleeping in cars, or navigating life on the street, all without stable housing, income, or support.
Youth homelessness is not simply a housing crisis, but one that leaves marginalized populations (like queer kids and kids of color) particularly at risk. This is fueled by this country's systemic failure to protect all of its residents. These youth are resourceful, adaptable and, yet, unique in all of their own personalities, plight and experience. Like the world at large, they are full of untold stories, but are rarely represented with care or empathy on screen.
Running Amidst is not only a piece of fiction, but also an opportunity to better understand many of the kids we walk next to each day - and hopefully help them out in reality.
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Mila and Sabi, siblings, prance about their mansion in the Los Angeles.
A man and his dog enter. He is the house’s owner.
Mila and Sabi currently have no home, and have been squatting from house to house, attempting to take care of their grandfather in assisted living.
Sabi is antsy, careful, quiet. He used to be the kid who followed the rules when no one was watching. A senior in high school, he's book-smart but emotionally out of step. He avoids the hard stuff, especially when it comes to family. Can’t bring himself to visit his grandfather. Hopeful, but stuck, he's still figuring out how to move through the world without folding in on himself.
Mila is impulsive, driven, a true free-spirit. She's the girl who acts first and thinks later. Dropped out of college, has taken on a string of odd jobs, and somehow ended up as the glue holding her family together. She's fierce when it comes to protecting the people she loves. Breaking the law doesn’t scare her. Losing control does.
This film chronicles their journey floating through the city for the night against their legacy of lost family. It is the story of two people navigating disconnection despite their ultimate reliance on each other. Where are our homes between all of the places and the people?
City desert. Summer heat. Moving constantly.
Tonally, we are a quiet, grounded slice-of-life drama blended with the tense action of youth running from authority. Emphasizing quiet observation and movement about space, we understand the importance of a glance, a beat, a moment of silence in harnessing powerful emotion.
Visually, we are a film with a kinetic, on-the-street handheld feel, dynamic blocking, lens flares and harsh sunlight. It is the sprawling west coast, the skin and sweat of summertime, and the contrast of fast-paced city daytimes with their quiet nighttime underbellies. Production design will rely on exterior, urban landscapes and large homes, prop and costume design subtly mirror themes of instability and care: shared coats, cluttered backpacks, and the remnants of houses past symbolize both transience and love.
As independent filmmakers and recent college graduates, we’re committed to telling stories that center characters navigating troubles grounded in reality. Our team hopes to create stories that are shaped by love, struggle, and the impact of systems we all navigate through in our own ways.
Crowdfunding allows us to build this story alongside the community it’s meant for without barriers of larger studios or institutions. Allowing crew members and actors to gain experience in their desired fields. Building connections with each other and amongst shared interests. Ultimately, working to change the landscape of stories told to audiences.
Service is a huge part of the ethos within this project. I want to connect the crew members, donors and community surrounding this film with local organizations that are helping to improve the lives of those facing homelessness and housing insecurity directly and in real life. I want to support a generation of filmmaking that understands that the hearts of our stories exist beyond the screen and to take action in improving the livelihood of all of us.
Funds raised will go directly toward the film's creation of an authentic visual world, securing locations, insurance and permitting and ensuring the film is made with the quality and integrity it beckons.
By contributing, you’re not only backing a film, but also helping to carve out space for more compassionate, grounded narratives about family and resilience. Stories that ask us to see each other more clearly.
.jpg)
It feels like before we can even settle in our new apartments -- we're already packing to move out again.
This feeling of transience I feel taps us all in many ways. The places we see. The people we lose. The time that passes by. The only constant is change.
When our world is fractured into pieces, how do we pick ourselves up? How do we contend with hard choices? How do we find hope when it feels lost?
The world keeps spinning.
I aim to show that, despite all of the unwanted messages the world throws at Mila and Sabi - in all that is lost in destroyed in the hours that pass, the comfort we can take can be in love. These siblings aren't defined by where they're from or where they're going, but how, in the hardest of moments, they are able to show up and care for each other -- even without a word.
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I promise to treat every dollar with care. Every piece of equipment, every bowl of food, every hour that passes matters as much as the last. Every contribution is important and cared for. I hope to represent my many communities across my current city of Los Angeles, California to my hometown of Flossmoor, Illinois. I hope to show up for the producers and crew members of this project, the friends that care for me, and the family that raised me. I want to make all of the people who I create for proud.
I am greatly humbled at the prospect of being able to contribute creatively to our changing world and lead this project with an ethos of service, care and empathy.
- Benjamin A. Turnquest and the team of Running Amidst
Wishlist
Use the WishList to Pledge cash and Loan items - or - Make a pledge by selecting an Incentive directly.
PRE-PRODUCTION
Costs $12,000
includes the cost of locations, permitting, insurance - what we need to prep to actually make the film come alive!
PRODUCTION
Costs $12,000
includes the cost of respective departments like camera, art, costume, makeup, personnel - what we need when we are on the ground filming!
ADMIN
Costs $2,000
covering administrative costs, like our fiscal sponsorship (which makes donations tax deductible)!
CONTINGENCY AND FESTIVAL
Costs $3,000
backups! what we need encase things go wrong, the money to make sure everyone is safe and sound - will be poured into festival run if unused
DONATION
Costs $2,000
our fixed, immutable donation to an organization that is helping housing insecurity in LA in reality! fiction isn't just such, we give back!
POST-PRODUCTION
Costs $1,000
largely done in house, but for any remaining costs of edit, sound, composing, color and other matters done after the film has been filmed!
Cash Pledge
Costs $0
Direct link:
Share this update!
About This Team
Benjamin Turnquest (writer/director)
Born and raised from Flossmoor IL in the South Suburbs of Chicago, meet me, Benjamin. A recent graduate from the University of Southern California's School of Cinematic Arts. I am an up-and-coming writer, director and producer.
Whether it be music performance and choral singing, 2-D art and film photography, or art history and film theory -- my background as a variable student of the arts has granted me a multi-faceted and unique approach to the filmmaking process. In addition to my love for fiction, I have utilized my broader skills in video content creation and post-production as a means of community service, helping non-profit organizations and as an employee at the Service Employees International Union with documentary and promotional initiatives.
Through my screenwriting and film work, I hope to show how giving back to people is my passion, and ultimately, demonstrate the power of a story. I'm looking at film as a means of creating empathy, equity and connection.
Current Team
Incentives
- The Story
- Wishlist
- Updates
- The Team
- Community
Mission Statement
The Story
It's estimated one in thirty youth from the ages of 13 to 17 in the United States experience homelessness each year. There are over 200,000 of them in California experiencing this annually. These are teens and emerging adults who’ve aged out of foster care, fled abusive homes, been rejected for their gender or sexuality, or simply fallen through the cracks of a city with millions walking the street each day.
They often go unseen: couch-surfing, sleeping in cars, or navigating life on the street, all without stable housing, income, or support.
Youth homelessness is not simply a housing crisis, but one that leaves marginalized populations (like queer kids and kids of color) particularly at risk. This is fueled by this country's systemic failure to protect all of its residents. These youth are resourceful, adaptable and, yet, unique in all of their own personalities, plight and experience. Like the world at large, they are full of untold stories, but are rarely represented with care or empathy on screen.
Running Amidst is not only a piece of fiction, but also an opportunity to better understand many of the kids we walk next to each day - and hopefully help them out in reality.
Mila and Sabi, siblings, prance about their mansion in the Los Angeles.
A man and his dog enter. He is the house’s owner.
Mila and Sabi currently have no home, and have been squatting from house to house, attempting to take care of their grandfather in assisted living.
Sabi is antsy, careful, quiet. He used to be the kid who followed the rules when no one was watching. A senior in high school, he's book-smart but emotionally out of step. He avoids the hard stuff, especially when it comes to family. Can’t bring himself to visit his grandfather. Hopeful, but stuck, he's still figuring out how to move through the world without folding in on himself.
Mila is impulsive, driven, a true free-spirit. She's the girl who acts first and thinks later. Dropped out of college, has taken on a string of odd jobs, and somehow ended up as the glue holding her family together. She's fierce when it comes to protecting the people she loves. Breaking the law doesn’t scare her. Losing control does.
This film chronicles their journey floating through the city for the night against their legacy of lost family. It is the story of two people navigating disconnection despite their ultimate reliance on each other. Where are our homes between all of the places and the people?
City desert. Summer heat. Moving constantly.
Tonally, we are a quiet, grounded slice-of-life drama blended with the tense action of youth running from authority. Emphasizing quiet observation and movement about space, we understand the importance of a glance, a beat, a moment of silence in harnessing powerful emotion.
Visually, we are a film with a kinetic, on-the-street handheld feel, dynamic blocking, lens flares and harsh sunlight. It is the sprawling west coast, the skin and sweat of summertime, and the contrast of fast-paced city daytimes with their quiet nighttime underbellies. Production design will rely on exterior, urban landscapes and large homes, prop and costume design subtly mirror themes of instability and care: shared coats, cluttered backpacks, and the remnants of houses past symbolize both transience and love.
As independent filmmakers and recent college graduates, we’re committed to telling stories that center characters navigating troubles grounded in reality. Our team hopes to create stories that are shaped by love, struggle, and the impact of systems we all navigate through in our own ways.
Crowdfunding allows us to build this story alongside the community it’s meant for without barriers of larger studios or institutions. Allowing crew members and actors to gain experience in their desired fields. Building connections with each other and amongst shared interests. Ultimately, working to change the landscape of stories told to audiences.
Service is a huge part of the ethos within this project. I want to connect the crew members, donors and community surrounding this film with local organizations that are helping to improve the lives of those facing homelessness and housing insecurity directly and in real life. I want to support a generation of filmmaking that understands that the hearts of our stories exist beyond the screen and to take action in improving the livelihood of all of us.
Funds raised will go directly toward the film's creation of an authentic visual world, securing locations, insurance and permitting and ensuring the film is made with the quality and integrity it beckons.
By contributing, you’re not only backing a film, but also helping to carve out space for more compassionate, grounded narratives about family and resilience. Stories that ask us to see each other more clearly.
It feels like before we can even settle in our new apartments -- we're already packing to move out again.
This feeling of transience I feel taps us all in many ways. The places we see. The people we lose. The time that passes by. The only constant is change.
When our world is fractured into pieces, how do we pick ourselves up? How do we contend with hard choices? How do we find hope when it feels lost?
The world keeps spinning.
I aim to show that, despite all of the unwanted messages the world throws at Mila and Sabi - in all that is lost in destroyed in the hours that pass, the comfort we can take can be in love. These siblings aren't defined by where they're from or where they're going, but how, in the hardest of moments, they are able to show up and care for each other -- even without a word.
I promise to treat every dollar with care. Every piece of equipment, every bowl of food, every hour that passes matters as much as the last. Every contribution is important and cared for. I hope to represent my many communities across my current city of Los Angeles, California to my hometown of Flossmoor, Illinois. I hope to show up for the producers and crew members of this project, the friends that care for me, and the family that raised me. I want to make all of the people who I create for proud.
I am greatly humbled at the prospect of being able to contribute creatively to our changing world and lead this project with an ethos of service, care and empathy.
- Benjamin A. Turnquest and the team of Running Amidst
Wishlist
Use the WishList to Pledge cash and Loan items - or - Make a pledge by selecting an Incentive directly.
PRE-PRODUCTION
Costs $12,000
includes the cost of locations, permitting, insurance - what we need to prep to actually make the film come alive!
PRODUCTION
Costs $12,000
includes the cost of respective departments like camera, art, costume, makeup, personnel - what we need when we are on the ground filming!
ADMIN
Costs $2,000
covering administrative costs, like our fiscal sponsorship (which makes donations tax deductible)!
CONTINGENCY AND FESTIVAL
Costs $3,000
backups! what we need encase things go wrong, the money to make sure everyone is safe and sound - will be poured into festival run if unused
DONATION
Costs $2,000
our fixed, immutable donation to an organization that is helping housing insecurity in LA in reality! fiction isn't just such, we give back!
POST-PRODUCTION
Costs $1,000
largely done in house, but for any remaining costs of edit, sound, composing, color and other matters done after the film has been filmed!
Cash Pledge
Costs $0
Direct link:
Share this update!
About This Team
Benjamin Turnquest (writer/director)
Born and raised from Flossmoor IL in the South Suburbs of Chicago, meet me, Benjamin. A recent graduate from the University of Southern California's School of Cinematic Arts. I am an up-and-coming writer, director and producer.
Whether it be music performance and choral singing, 2-D art and film photography, or art history and film theory -- my background as a variable student of the arts has granted me a multi-faceted and unique approach to the filmmaking process. In addition to my love for fiction, I have utilized my broader skills in video content creation and post-production as a means of community service, helping non-profit organizations and as an employee at the Service Employees International Union with documentary and promotional initiatives.
Through my screenwriting and film work, I hope to show how giving back to people is my passion, and ultimately, demonstrate the power of a story. I'm looking at film as a means of creating empathy, equity and connection.