Thank You, Neck is a coming of age drama that follows the journey of a young designer Sophie after she receives a cancer diagnosis.

This short film is about how we reconcile with health and our own circumstances during hardships that life throws our way. The crab that Sophie steals in the early part of the film represents her cancer and, as the film goes on, Sophie learns to befriend the crab in order to heal - to befriend and accept her cancer. 

We meet Sophie on a night out with coworkers where she drunkenly steals a Louisiana Blue crab from a fish market. Shortly after, a routine check-up with her primary care doctor leads to a series of tests that reveal that Sophie is in the early stages of thyroid cancer. Sophie cares for the crab in her bathtub as she remains reluctant to treat her disease. Sophie seeks the help of an ayurvedic practitioner who provides space for her growth and eventual acceptance of her new situation. 

Illness is the night-side of life, a more onerous citizenship. Everyone who is born holds dual citizenship, in the kingdom of the well and in the kingdom of the sick. Although we all prefer to use only the good passport, sooner or later each of us is obliged, at least for a spell, to identify ourselves as citizens of that other place.

Susan Sontag, Illness as Metaphor, 1977

This story, though fictional, is based on the writer’s experiences with thyroid disease, thyroid cancer, and thyroid removal. This film is a story and investigation of personal growth in health and in film production. With this film, the director’s intent is to focus on expanding her visual language. Specifically, focusing on how one might begin to show internal character struggles on screen, or illnesses on screen. 

With the director’s last film, Canary, her focus was on building a controllable environment to use exploratory special effects and visual elements to connect the audience with the protagonist’s psyche, inner turmoil, and mental distress. With Thank You, Neck, the director would like to continue this exploration in a refined way - something that isn’t as experimental while remaining just as in-tune with the protagonist’s internal experience. 

We believe the story is worth telling because we feel that there is an immediacy to telling stories about women’s health and mental health. We see this film resonating with audience’s that appreciate exploratory filmmaking as well as those who might be struggling with health issues or a recent diagnosis. We often find that highly specific stories (and stories based loosely in the sciences) tend to resonate by building on universal truths, and I hope to accomplish this with my film. Though this is just one story, there are many more to tell within this landscape. 

We are currently about to enter post-production for Thank You, Neck. Principal photography wrapped in New Orleans on November 20th and we are now crowdfunding for finishing funds for the project. We will need your support to make it across the finish line!

Visual Inspiration for Thank You, Neck: 

Thank You, Neck draws inspiration from the Director’s life as well as visual inspiration from many films, filmmakers, painters, and visual artists. From the director:

I am continuously inspired by paintings, music, plays, architecture, and all other art forms when thinking about creating something new for myself. For this film, I’ve been trying to mentally grapple with the concept of self-estrangement - an idea that feels simultaneously foreign and familiar to me. I’ve been drawn to the Earth-Body or Silueta series (between 1972-1980) by Ana Mendieta. Her pieces are quite visceral, alarming, and beautifully transient. Mendieta states of her work, “I am overwhelmed by the feeling of having been cast from the womb (nature). My art is the way I re-establish the bonds that unite me to the universe. It is a return to the maternal source”. I see Mendieta’s work as a means of reconciling the body as one with nature and separate from the self in a way that is less volatile and more comforting. 

Another avenue I have been investigating is the role of masks and suits in various cultures. Traditional African funeral masks are used to hide the individual while invoking a spirit or deceased loved one during a funeral experience or ritual. In many cultures, these masks and attire completely obscure the body of the individual giving a sense of freedom to those behind them.

This is a similar phenomenon I’ve noticed personally at Mardi Gras festivities, in particular the St. Anne Parade. Completely obscuring of the body and face gives the wearer a level of autonomy of motion and estrangement from self. Unrecognizable, the costumed and masked individual can make their way through an entire parade interacting with people, neighbors, and strangers knowing their identity is concealed. Philip Ross writes that, historically, during Carnival season across the world, masks allow for attendees to escape class constraints and mingle without damage to their reputation. These examples provide alternative means of estrangement from the body or identity in a way that is physical - in that, the means of estrangement is a costume, mask, or installation. 

In my film, I am trying to grapple with this same idea but all encased into one woman’s bodily experiences. I am not speaking directly of complete dissociation from emotions, identity, or memories but rather, a feeling of loss of control, unfamiliarity, and rapid change.

What I am looking to explore in my film is how one might visually show this abrupt internal change between estrangement and intuition or intuitive growth; from unhealthy to healthy. Sophie is by all means, a woman caught in a position where she needs to make real, lasting decisions about herself and her body before it’s too late. 

Characters: 

Sophie - played by Ashley Shelton. Sophie is a designer living and working in New Orleans, Louisiana. Sophie drinks heavily in the evenings to shake off her days at work and drinks coffee during the day to make up for what she drank the night before. She’s thrown herself into her work after her parents’ death and has barely had a moment to breathe. Sophie goes on a journey of self discovery in the face of a grim diagnosis. 

Angie - played by Laura Cayouette. Angie is a yoga instructor and ayurvedic practitioner. She is someone who is completely comfortable in her body and seems to have perfect, unachievable self-esteem. Angie guides the protagonist on a journey that gives the protagonist the space to self-reflect on her circumstances.

Dr. Naresh - played by Nicholas Bordelon. Dr. Naresh is the protagonist’s doctor. He is physically fit and often wears a fitness tracker to make sure he drinks enough water throughout the day and gets all of his steps in. Dr. Naresh gives the protagonist the news that she has cancer.

Kristen - played by Sadie May. A focused designer working in a predominantly male work environment. Kristen is the close work-friend of the protagonist, Sophie. Kristen is straight-laced, competent at her work in design, and wants to get a promotion at the end of the year.

What We Need: 

We ask for your help in finishing this film! As we move into post-production, we are looking for funding for VFX, film development and scans, high resolution footage release, original music, color correction, and additional drive storage. 

VFX for this project will help us bring to life key moments in the film. Specifically, when Sophie sees an oil spill outside of her office window along the Mississippi river. Funding will help cover the cost of hiring a VFX specialist for this segment of the project. 

During the film, Sophie has a recurring dream sequence that we filmed with a traditional film camera using 16mm film. Funding will help cover the cost of development and high resolution scanning of the dream sequence. In addition to film processing and scans, We will need to purchase additional high resolution footage to supplement medical inserts that we could not film due to privacy and access to medical equipment. 

We will use funding to hire a film composer to create an original score for the film. We feel that this role is a crucial part into bringing Sophie’s world and emotional journey on screen. Music will highlight and bridge Sophie’s story as she works through her emotional and spiritual journey over the length of the film. 

In post-production, our director of photography, Levi Porter, will serve as colorist for the film. Levi has a keen eye that will bring the finished edit to a higher level. Funding will cover Levi’s time and software use during the entire color correction process. The team will also purchase additional harddrives to back-up and secure the footage, edit, and all other post-production files. 

Stretch Goals:

Our goal is to raise $5500 for basic needs for post-production of Thank You, Neck. Our stretch goals would allow for contingency in post-production and any unforeseen costs and additional expenses. $6050 would allow for 10% contingency to cover additional and unforeseen costs as well as festival submission fees. $7000 would begin to get us to a position where we will be able to pay for an assistant editor, and any other assistant positions during post production. Any amount over our initial goal of $5500 will be incredible and will get us closer to achieving a wonderful final product. 

Thank You! (Neck)

Thank you so much for visiting our page and contributing to our vision. We can’t wait to share Sophie’s world with you and finish post-production on Thank You, Neck!

There is more than one way to help along our journey! 

• Follow our campaign and share the link with your friends and family!
• Follow our team on social media channels to get regular updates from the filmmakers (@leforbusier, @madamekelso, @yealevi) 
• Keep following the campaign! Regular visits to your campaign page will keep you up to date and will increase our chances of getting featured on their site.