Serious Play Film - Post Funding
Los Angeles, California | Film Feature
Comedy, Documentary
In SERIOUS PLAY, a documentary crew tries to keep up with performers attending a juggling festival. Sonal, pregnant after a one-night-stand with a mime, has to decide if she can handle motherhood. This comedic feature is a wild unicycle ride that will make you laugh, cry, & keep you guessing!
Serious Play Film - Post Funding
Los Angeles, California | Film Feature
Comedy, Documentary
33 supporters | followers
Enter the amount you would like to pledge
$6,080
Goal: $20,000 for post-production
In SERIOUS PLAY, a documentary crew tries to keep up with performers attending a juggling festival. Sonal, pregnant after a one-night-stand with a mime, has to decide if she can handle motherhood. This comedic feature is a wild unicycle ride that will make you laugh, cry, & keep you guessing!
About The Project
- The Story
- Wishlist
- Updates
- The Team
- Community
Mission Statement
The Story
Below the rafters of a convention center, colorful balls, rings, and clubs propel through the air. The masters of these props are focused but calm. Their hands move intuitively to catch each object at an even rhythm. People come to the festival to compete, share, teach, practice, and perform. But mostly, they come to spend time with other people who share their enthusiasm for play and obsession with tricks.
SERIOUS PLAY is a hybrid documentary-comedy about an international juggling festival and the performers who find truth in the absurd. Part vérité doc, part scripted satire, the film blurs fact and fiction in a playful portrait of artists who drop the (literal, figurative) ball, yet somehow always manage to pick it back up again.
- Sonal: a fire-dancing comic navigating pregnancy after a one-night-stand with a mime
- Lucy: a cheeky street performer, will negotiate the line between artistic satisfaction and financial security.
- Cyril: a Cirque du Soleil veteran, will challenge himself to find an act that restores his sense of play.
- Alex AKA The Mime: Sonal’s baby daddy, a mystery wrapped in a clown
The film documents the rhythm of an international juggling festival through a documentary perspective: from daytime workshops and trading tricks on the gym floor, to evening variety shows and late-night Renegade performances.
While the primary characters’ stories are semi-scripted narrative arcs, the world they inhabit is completely unscripted—and full of its own stories. Over the course of the week, the viewer is introduced to a rotating cast of jugglers: Thom Wall on the history of juggling, Laura Shub on gender and representation in the sport, Paris the Hip-Hop Juggler on expanding diversity, Benjamin Domask-Ruh on the importance of play, and Marvin Ong on the rise of flow arts.
SERIOUS PLAY is not about perfection. It’s about the joy of trying, the beauty of mess, and the real people who turn failure into art. In the hands of this community, juggling is not just a skill—it’s a way to belong.
- A project created by a female led team
- Brings visibility to the juggling, flow, and circus arts world with warmth, humor, and humanity
- Reflects the lived realities and challenges of working artists and the trade-offs we make for our craft
- Explores universal themes of creative risk, identity, and belonging
- Showcases BIPOC, queer, trans, and neurodiverse artists in a celebration of community
- Explores the challenges communities face to become a more inclusive and welcoming space for all
- A rare hybrid of documentary and narrative that playfully challenges genre and form
We’ve been researching, interviewing, and attending juggling festivals and meet-ups to make this film thoughtfully for the past 6 years. In 2021 we made a short film as a proof-of-concept for our approach. From 2024-2025, we completed production of our feature, and now, we’re in the final stretch: post-production.
Your support ensures we can finish the cut to premiere in 2026. It also lets us honor the heart of this project: a handmade film about artists, made by artists, with the care it deserves.
Every dollar helps us finish a film that centers underrepresented voices and the creative power of failure. As a community of performers, makers, and collaborators— we know what it means to support each other’s art.
Your support will help us with:
- Editing sic and composition
- Sound mix and mastering
- Color grading
- Graphic design
- Festival submission fees
- Marketing and distribution
If you're not able to support us financially at the moment, we understand! It's an expensive world and there are so many people who deserve more than what they've been able to access. If you can share our campaign, tell your friends about the movie, forward this to your coworker who juggles in the park on the weekend (you probably have one!), that makes a huge difference as well.
Wishlist
Use the WishList to Pledge cash and Loan items - or - Make a pledge by selecting an Incentive directly.
Picture Editing
Costs $5,000
Covers time for editorial work to shape the narrative and emotional arc. The hybrid nature of this film will take experimentation and play(!
Color Grading
Costs $5,000
Brings the visual world to life, balancing tones between vérité doc and stylized comedy.
Original Music Composition
Costs $5,000
Custom score to enhance comedic timing, emotional turns, and tonal shifts across narrative and doc scenes.
Sound Mix + Design
Costs $5,000
Final mix of dialogue, sound design, and effects to blend documentary audio with cinematic polish.
Share this update!
About This Team
Lindsey Phillips — Co-Director, Editor, Producer
Lindsey Phillips is a documentary filmmaker and editor based in Brooklyn, NY. In her work she celebrates unique places and communities, finding humor in complex places. She recently edited the hybrid feature film, HOLDING BACK THE TIDE (DocNYC 2023) which the New York Times declared as, "both an elegy and a prophecy". Her award-winning films have screened at festivals across the country including San Francisco Indie Shorts, Miami Int. FF, Cucalorus, New Orleans FF, Cleveland Int. FF, and more.
A seasoned documentarian with a strong background in hybrid formats, Lindsey brings editorial precision and emotional depth to SERIOUS PLAY. As co-director and lead editor, she shapes the film’s rhythm and tone, weaving real interviews with scripted moments to highlight both the absurdity and authenticity of the juggling world.
Kate Mason – Co-Director, Co-Writer, Producer
Kate Mason is an LA-based mischief-maker who programs documentaries for the New Orleans Film Festival and works in film programming and live events at Film Independent, where she produces the organization’s infamous live read series. Her performance career blossomed in New Orleans, where she trained in improv, sketch, acting, and pounded every dirty stage doing stand-up comedy. She was part of sketch duo Raw Honey and toured Appalachia as part of the Your Uncle’s Girlfriend tour in 2018. After moving to LA, she started a weekly stand-up show at The Little Easy in DTLA and a COVID-era socially distant show called The Comedy Roof. She moonlights as drag king Squirt Reynolds, crowned Mr Congealed at 2018’s Miss Pageant Pageant.
Kate’s sharp comedic sensibility and background in experimental performance art helped shape SERIOUS PLAY's distinctive blend of vérité documentary and narrative satire. She wrote the scripted scenes for the film based on conversations she had with juggling performers and the lead characters themselves. She also appears in the film in a meta, self-reflexive role, blurring the line between observer and participant.
Eli Ash — Producer
Eli Ash is a Los Angeles-based producer with deep roots in independent film and branded content. Formerly Head of Production at Netflix’s studio marketing arm, Eli has led high-profile projects across documentary and commercial formats. She is the co-founder of Backhouse Films and a creative systems strategist, working at the intersection of storytelling and production infrastructure. Originally from the New Orleans film scene, Eli brings a values-driven, artist-forward producing ethos to SERIOUS PLAY, managing the creative vision and production logistics with rigor and care.
Laura Sanders – Co-Writer
Laura Sanders is a comedian, writer, and visual artist living in New Orleans. She’s told jokes all over the country, and been part of such acclaimed lineups as LA’s Hot Tub with Kurt and Kristen,Chicago’s Comedians You Should Know, Wyatt Cenac’s Night Train, Denver’s High Plains Comedy Festival, and Bloomington’s Limestone Comedy Festival. Sanders recorded Oh God Please Like Me, an album that debuted number one on the iTunes comedy charts, and runs a feel good coloring club called Color Me Flattered. Laura has worked as a visual story-teller with liquor brands, authors, big magazines, non-profits, bartender summer camps, software companies, comedy festivals, and many other weird and wonderful clients in between. Not satisfied by the amount of friendship and influence gained in stand-up and illustration alone, Laura has also written for and acted in sketch comedy shows and independent films.
Paavo Hanninen — Director of Photography
Paavo Hanninen is a cinematographer and visual artist known for his rich, kinetic camera work and an ability to capture deeply human stories through expressive visual language. Paavo’s credits include narrative films, branded campaigns, and docu-style pieces with a naturalistic yet stylized flair. His cinematography grounds SERIOUS PLAY in a warm, handheld aesthetic, honoring both the rawness of real events and the whimsy of staged spectacle.
Paavo has experience with documentaries, narratives, music videos, and branded content. Films he has shot have played at SXSW, Tribeca, Rotterdam, Clermont-Ferrand, New Orleans Film Festival, Maryland Film Festival, and many others. He has worked with numerous notable directors including Katie Mathews, CJ Hunt, Garrett Bradley, Margaret Brown, Lee Hirsch, Jimmy Chin, Elizabeth Chai Vasarhelyi, and many others. Films he has DP-ed have been supported by Sundance, SF Film, Tribeca, Southern Doc Fund, Ford Foundation and many others.
Current Team
Incentives
- The Story
- Wishlist
- Updates
- The Team
- Community
Mission Statement
The Story
Below the rafters of a convention center, colorful balls, rings, and clubs propel through the air. The masters of these props are focused but calm. Their hands move intuitively to catch each object at an even rhythm. People come to the festival to compete, share, teach, practice, and perform. But mostly, they come to spend time with other people who share their enthusiasm for play and obsession with tricks.
SERIOUS PLAY is a hybrid documentary-comedy about an international juggling festival and the performers who find truth in the absurd. Part vérité doc, part scripted satire, the film blurs fact and fiction in a playful portrait of artists who drop the (literal, figurative) ball, yet somehow always manage to pick it back up again.
- Sonal: a fire-dancing comic navigating pregnancy after a one-night-stand with a mime
- Lucy: a cheeky street performer, will negotiate the line between artistic satisfaction and financial security.
- Cyril: a Cirque du Soleil veteran, will challenge himself to find an act that restores his sense of play.
- Alex AKA The Mime: Sonal’s baby daddy, a mystery wrapped in a clown
The film documents the rhythm of an international juggling festival through a documentary perspective: from daytime workshops and trading tricks on the gym floor, to evening variety shows and late-night Renegade performances.
While the primary characters’ stories are semi-scripted narrative arcs, the world they inhabit is completely unscripted—and full of its own stories. Over the course of the week, the viewer is introduced to a rotating cast of jugglers: Thom Wall on the history of juggling, Laura Shub on gender and representation in the sport, Paris the Hip-Hop Juggler on expanding diversity, Benjamin Domask-Ruh on the importance of play, and Marvin Ong on the rise of flow arts.
SERIOUS PLAY is not about perfection. It’s about the joy of trying, the beauty of mess, and the real people who turn failure into art. In the hands of this community, juggling is not just a skill—it’s a way to belong.
- A project created by a female led team
- Brings visibility to the juggling, flow, and circus arts world with warmth, humor, and humanity
- Reflects the lived realities and challenges of working artists and the trade-offs we make for our craft
- Explores universal themes of creative risk, identity, and belonging
- Showcases BIPOC, queer, trans, and neurodiverse artists in a celebration of community
- Explores the challenges communities face to become a more inclusive and welcoming space for all
- A rare hybrid of documentary and narrative that playfully challenges genre and form
We’ve been researching, interviewing, and attending juggling festivals and meet-ups to make this film thoughtfully for the past 6 years. In 2021 we made a short film as a proof-of-concept for our approach. From 2024-2025, we completed production of our feature, and now, we’re in the final stretch: post-production.
Your support ensures we can finish the cut to premiere in 2026. It also lets us honor the heart of this project: a handmade film about artists, made by artists, with the care it deserves.
Every dollar helps us finish a film that centers underrepresented voices and the creative power of failure. As a community of performers, makers, and collaborators— we know what it means to support each other’s art.
Your support will help us with:
- Editing sic and composition
- Sound mix and mastering
- Color grading
- Graphic design
- Festival submission fees
- Marketing and distribution
If you're not able to support us financially at the moment, we understand! It's an expensive world and there are so many people who deserve more than what they've been able to access. If you can share our campaign, tell your friends about the movie, forward this to your coworker who juggles in the park on the weekend (you probably have one!), that makes a huge difference as well.
Wishlist
Use the WishList to Pledge cash and Loan items - or - Make a pledge by selecting an Incentive directly.
Picture Editing
Costs $5,000
Covers time for editorial work to shape the narrative and emotional arc. The hybrid nature of this film will take experimentation and play(!
Color Grading
Costs $5,000
Brings the visual world to life, balancing tones between vérité doc and stylized comedy.
Original Music Composition
Costs $5,000
Custom score to enhance comedic timing, emotional turns, and tonal shifts across narrative and doc scenes.
Sound Mix + Design
Costs $5,000
Final mix of dialogue, sound design, and effects to blend documentary audio with cinematic polish.
Share this update!
About This Team
Lindsey Phillips — Co-Director, Editor, Producer
Lindsey Phillips is a documentary filmmaker and editor based in Brooklyn, NY. In her work she celebrates unique places and communities, finding humor in complex places. She recently edited the hybrid feature film, HOLDING BACK THE TIDE (DocNYC 2023) which the New York Times declared as, "both an elegy and a prophecy". Her award-winning films have screened at festivals across the country including San Francisco Indie Shorts, Miami Int. FF, Cucalorus, New Orleans FF, Cleveland Int. FF, and more.
A seasoned documentarian with a strong background in hybrid formats, Lindsey brings editorial precision and emotional depth to SERIOUS PLAY. As co-director and lead editor, she shapes the film’s rhythm and tone, weaving real interviews with scripted moments to highlight both the absurdity and authenticity of the juggling world.
Kate Mason – Co-Director, Co-Writer, Producer
Kate Mason is an LA-based mischief-maker who programs documentaries for the New Orleans Film Festival and works in film programming and live events at Film Independent, where she produces the organization’s infamous live read series. Her performance career blossomed in New Orleans, where she trained in improv, sketch, acting, and pounded every dirty stage doing stand-up comedy. She was part of sketch duo Raw Honey and toured Appalachia as part of the Your Uncle’s Girlfriend tour in 2018. After moving to LA, she started a weekly stand-up show at The Little Easy in DTLA and a COVID-era socially distant show called The Comedy Roof. She moonlights as drag king Squirt Reynolds, crowned Mr Congealed at 2018’s Miss Pageant Pageant.
Kate’s sharp comedic sensibility and background in experimental performance art helped shape SERIOUS PLAY's distinctive blend of vérité documentary and narrative satire. She wrote the scripted scenes for the film based on conversations she had with juggling performers and the lead characters themselves. She also appears in the film in a meta, self-reflexive role, blurring the line between observer and participant.
Eli Ash — Producer
Eli Ash is a Los Angeles-based producer with deep roots in independent film and branded content. Formerly Head of Production at Netflix’s studio marketing arm, Eli has led high-profile projects across documentary and commercial formats. She is the co-founder of Backhouse Films and a creative systems strategist, working at the intersection of storytelling and production infrastructure. Originally from the New Orleans film scene, Eli brings a values-driven, artist-forward producing ethos to SERIOUS PLAY, managing the creative vision and production logistics with rigor and care.
Laura Sanders – Co-Writer
Laura Sanders is a comedian, writer, and visual artist living in New Orleans. She’s told jokes all over the country, and been part of such acclaimed lineups as LA’s Hot Tub with Kurt and Kristen,Chicago’s Comedians You Should Know, Wyatt Cenac’s Night Train, Denver’s High Plains Comedy Festival, and Bloomington’s Limestone Comedy Festival. Sanders recorded Oh God Please Like Me, an album that debuted number one on the iTunes comedy charts, and runs a feel good coloring club called Color Me Flattered. Laura has worked as a visual story-teller with liquor brands, authors, big magazines, non-profits, bartender summer camps, software companies, comedy festivals, and many other weird and wonderful clients in between. Not satisfied by the amount of friendship and influence gained in stand-up and illustration alone, Laura has also written for and acted in sketch comedy shows and independent films.
Paavo Hanninen — Director of Photography
Paavo Hanninen is a cinematographer and visual artist known for his rich, kinetic camera work and an ability to capture deeply human stories through expressive visual language. Paavo’s credits include narrative films, branded campaigns, and docu-style pieces with a naturalistic yet stylized flair. His cinematography grounds SERIOUS PLAY in a warm, handheld aesthetic, honoring both the rawness of real events and the whimsy of staged spectacle.
Paavo has experience with documentaries, narratives, music videos, and branded content. Films he has shot have played at SXSW, Tribeca, Rotterdam, Clermont-Ferrand, New Orleans Film Festival, Maryland Film Festival, and many others. He has worked with numerous notable directors including Katie Mathews, CJ Hunt, Garrett Bradley, Margaret Brown, Lee Hirsch, Jimmy Chin, Elizabeth Chai Vasarhelyi, and many others. Films he has DP-ed have been supported by Sundance, SF Film, Tribeca, Southern Doc Fund, Ford Foundation and many others.