Tory Hill's rise to fame had been fast and huge. Her chart-topping hits and sold-out arenas made her a pop icon, but the glittering facade of fame concealed a profound emptiness within her. Buried beneath the layers of makeup, designer outfits, and paparazzi flashes, she feels lonely, stressed, and like she cannot control her own life, or make her own decisions for her career.

She is on tour in Toronto on her birthday and instead of spending it with family, her manager booked a business dinner for her new album with production people that she doesn’t know. As she is announcing her new album soon, Tory has a photo shoot for her album cover —but everything doesn’t turn out the way she planned when the director decides to change her whole look for something that will fit better people’s LIKING. In an industry that thrives on image and conformity, Tory feels suffocated by the expectations and pressures placed upon her. She later plans on going out with her friend to clear her head but ends up being kept on set, and by the time she arrives at the location, she is alone. She decides to stay and have some drinks.

She gets the backlash the next day when she is on a live talk show with a host who only cares about the juicy details of her private life and not her career and achievements. His disrespect makes her leave the set angry and finally determined to quit that superficial life.

Our Director, Isalyne Hebert, chose to write the story of a young famous pop star, stuck in her sparkly world but wanting to get out of it to live a calm and normal life. We want to show her as a human being, suffering from what everyone thinks is happiness: Fame. Money. Easy life. We always hear people say that money doesn’t buy happiness, but many don't take the time to consider what that means, so we want this to be the lesson people get from this movie.

There are many reasons why this story needs to be told this way. We want audiences to take another perspective of the pop star lifestyle, and get immersed in it so they know how it truly feels behind the cameras and flashing lights. Though we don’t know exactly how it is, we have seen how it is to be a woman in our society; the high expectations and standards we are held at, and we know that those standards are even more emphasized and upheld in the music industry. As onlookers, we tend to think that famous people have everything but, in this movie, the audience will get to see the behind-the-scenes of fame and glory.

Isalyne's main motivation behind this story is the dream she had growing up, like so many other young girls. Watching our favorite pop stars on screen, growing up and wishing we could be just like them; have what they have - the perfect life, the beautiful clothes, fancy parties and dinners. But as we grew up we started to see the downside, so many stars we idolized, struggling with their mental health, and seeing how hard of a toll that young fame had on them. It took time to understand that they don’t have the perfect life, especially with everything we see on social media nowadays, it feels like nothing is real, but no one cares.

Isalyne's vision is to focus on how this girl is feeling behind what anyone would see in the media. She is loved by her fans, she has money, success, and everything she wants, but there is always something missing. We go on a journey with our character as she works to discover why she isn't happy. She feels unfulfilled, and alone. This is our focus and theme. By showing those feelings, we want to raise awareness of mental health as well. An important subject for our director, who experienced those feelings of emptiness before. It means a lot because, at that time in her life, it felt like there was no one, even though she had her family and friends. Our character is someone who represents all of that and more, something that is bigger than us.

After months of preparing this project; various rewrites, scouting, designing, and pitching, the project has been chosen to proceed into production. Our team has known from the start what a special project this would become, and we can't wait to share it with you all. As we prepare for principal photography, these funds will help us cover the costs of our locations, sets, and costuming, allowing us to create a truly realistic visual representation of the pop star life. Casting is underway, and we are scheduled to film mid-March, and following a vigorous run through post, we will be ready to share the film at the end of June. Our goal is to launch the project into festivals so people everywhere can share in the experience.

You can follow the films journey on Instagram: @film_stardust for all of our latest updates.