Spiral follows 19-year-old KORY, whose twin brother commits a school shooting. In the wreckage, she moves to a small town in Indiana to live with her estranged father and ends up face to face with the people her brother hurt. As she continues to understand the community more, she grapples with the reality that someone she shared a womb with could be capable of violence this extreme. In her countless interactions, she doesn't tell anyone who she really is. She can't look away from what her brother did, but she can't confess it either. 

This isn't a show about why someone pulls a trigger. Spiral is about everyone left standing in the fallout. It’s about the victims, but also the families who share a last name with the person who caused it, who carry a grief the country isn't prepared to grieve with them.

Like many other children who grew up in America during the 21st century, I’ve participated in active shooter drills since elementary school. I’ve seen headlines about school shootings pile up in the media. I’ve watched my peers shy away from the topic, too afraid of the consequences to engage in a much needed conversation. 

While writing this story, I knew I wanted to focus on the vast community of people affected by these tragic events—including the family of the shooter. Spiral centers around the aftermath of a shooting, but at its heart, it’s about how these violent events irreparably damage relationships, our trust in each other, and devastate entire communities. As a writer, I’ve always been drawn to complicated familial relationships and the messy, complex emotions that come with it. The choice to tell this story from the perspective of a family member of the shooter is an attempt to reckon with the ways that violence impacts all parts of a community and offer some perspective on a family grappling with the devastating consequences of actions they did not commit, but that have forever changed their lives and the lives of their community.

-Keyao Wu

I was in middle school the first time a lockdown drill felt real instead of routine. I don't even remember which shooting prompted it because that's how often it was happening. By the time we were old enough to organize a walkout, we'd lost count of the names. Parkland. Sandy Hook. Uvalde. Santa Fe. So many before them, so many after. At some point I noticed what the repetition was doing to my peers and me: we were going numb on purpose. Pushing each headline aside before it could land, because feeling the full weight of it every single time would have been unbearable.

Nobody talks about the numbness. We talk about the tragedies, the headlines, the vigils, the debates that go nowhere. We don't talk about what it costs a generation to survive them the only way we could: by caring a little less each time.

Spiral comes out of that cost.

Every drill I sat through in middle school taught me how to survive a shooting. Nothing taught me how to survive knowing it kept happening to someone else, over and over, without shutting my own heart off to cope.

Fiction can't stop the next headline. But it can do something headlines can't: slow down, stay in one house, one town, one fractured family, long enough that an audience can't look away. Long enough that it finally lands the way it should have every time.

That's the story we're asking you to help us tell.

-Ava DiLorenzo

As of August 3rd, 2026 there have been 16 school shootings in the United States. The number of school shootings that have occurred in America have significantly increased since 2008. The sheer volume of headlines risks the public’s desensitization from the gravity of the violence that is being brought upon communities. With Spiral, we hope to expose our audience to the devastation that the parents, students, and community experience while also exploring the complex, confusing emotions faced by the shooter’s family.

Currently, Spiral is in pre-production with a plan to start shooting in November 2026, and we need your help for the expenses above. Our team has been lucky enough to secure some equipment and various resources from New York University. With your support on the remaining funds, we’ll be able to cover costs in locations, production design, and food for the crew in order to bring this project to life.

Our film is fiscally sponsored by From the Heart Productions, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization, which means that any contributions made to us are fully tax deductible!

Check out our "WISHLIST" for more details on how your contribution will be used!

Our team hopes that Spiral will spark conversation about what happens after these tragic events occur. We start production on the project very soon and we need your help to bring our pilot to life. Every contribution counts, even if it’s just sharing our Seed&Spark page or following the project on our Instagram @spiralshow.

Ways to Help

- CONTRIBUTE by making a pledge to our film, or simply sharing this page with your friends and family. Every penny counts, as we must reach 80% of the goal to receive any of the funds. 

- SPREAD THE WORD by sending our Seed&Spark to people you know or anyone you think would be interested in the project! You can copy this link!

- FOLLOW us on Seed & Spark and on Instagram (@spiralshow) to stay updated on our project’s journey!

On behalf of the Spiral team, we thank you for all your support!