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Our Story:

In a ski town deep in the mountains of Western Maine in 2006, Corinne Taylor balances single parenthood with sobriety.

The death of her mother brings her brother Nick back into her life, and having fallen victim to the opioid crisis, Nick accidentally entangles his sister in his tumultuous life of drug-dealing.

Real Life Context:

The first wave of opioid deaths hit Maine in the mid to late 1990’s when new stocks of painkillers like oxycontin and oxycodone hit the markets. Physicians prescribed these painkillers with limited understanding of their long term effects, and as the number of prescriptions increased so too did the number of overdose cases as patients quickly became hooked. When the federal government began to crack down on the illegal distribution of oxy and narcotics like it in the early 2000s, addicts turned to heroin and later fentanyl in the form of counterfeit pharmaceuticals.

In Maine, this trend has been on a steady incline in recent decades, and the state frequently reports overdoses at higher rates than the national average.

Now, meth has come for Maine as the supply of fentanyl and fentanyl adulterations dwindles and becomes diluted, resulting in a jump in overdose cases nearing 36% since 2019.

By setting this story in the early 2000s, the Taylor siblings are at a pivotal point in their respective sobriety journeys as the drug landscape in Maine begins to change.

Meet the Characters

Corinne Taylor

A single mom balancing parenthood with sobriety. She got white-knuckle sober through an unplanned pregnancy, but she never fully resolved her past and carries lasting resentment. Her daughter is the lynch pin keeping her life on course and while she works to provide Ellie a better future, Corinne is in many ways stuck in her old patterns. Her only other family is her younger brother, Nick.

Corinne will be played by Vacationland writer and producer Jane West.

Nick Taylor

Nick, early thirties, had a rougher time growing up, and has never been able to stay sober for very long. Despite his issues, he has a good heart. He just never faced his demons, and now can’t seem to catch a break. Try as he might, his sister may always hold him at arm’s length, especially now that he has ventured further down a destructive path

Liz + Danny

Danny is Corinne’s ex and Ellie’s father, who has now made good with a new wife and stable home. He does his best to stay in Ellie’s life, while Corinne sometimes fails to meet the same parenting standard to which he holds himself. He may never make up for leaving Corinne when she needed him most, but his own sobriety depended on it. His relationship with Corinne may be an unhealed wound forever, but he is determined to remain a stabilizing presence for his new family.

In many ways, Liz is the most anchored person in this story. Her upbringing was far more stable than Corinne, Nick, or Danny’s, and she has built a secure and safe home for her two sons and stepdaughter. She has left the door open for a relationship with Corinne, but keeps her boundaries firm when it comes to Nick, creating friction. Liz would never try to replace Corinne in Ellie’s life, but she will be the better version of a mother when needed.

Rose and Merril

Rose and Merril are an older couple who run the local pill mill out of Rose’s pain clinic. They probably should be enjoying retirement, but can't afford it. A trained medical professional, Rose may have at one time worked a normal job in a hospital while Merril earned a living as a cop. Tough, isolated, and with a thinning safety net, they turned to the semi-illicit distribution of pain medication to stay above water. Rose runs the operation, Merril provides the muscle when needed, and while their actions inflict pain on their community, they are motivated only by survival and self-preservation. 

The Style:

We plan to capture this story on location in western Maine, with a shooting style that harkens back to the look and feel of independent films from the early 2000s. It will incorporate elements of Dogma95 including hand-held camera operation, naturalistic lighting and lived-in environments.

The goal is to place the viewer directly in the private lives of these characters and their circumstances as a silent witness, keeping this story all the more accessible and impactful.

Why Maine?

Maine has good reason to be called “The Vacationland State:” it’s beautiful, peaceful and expansive.

But there is a certain irony to living year-round in Vacationland when the vacation season comes and goes. The locals don’t get to leave: their hometowns are utilized for tourism and once the crowds disperse, the unnerving quiet and isolation sets in. The harsh climate, desolate landscape, and economic strains make for a precarious survival which often leads to less-than-legal means of making money and the escapism of drugs and alcohol.

This is not the Maine of Portland and Bar Harbor postcards: some towns in western and northern Maine were never even named. Resources for recovery and harm-reduction are limited in many parts of the state.

Maine has one of the lowest population densities in the country, and Mainers tend to mind their business to a fault.

In Vacationland, exploring location as a character in this story is just as important as the characters themselves.

Our materials include original photos by director Lucy Moroukian and producer Freyja Golbach taken on location in Newry, Rumford, and Bethel Maine

OUR CAMPAIGN

As we launch this project into pre-production, we are reaching out to our community of artists, friends and fellow filmmakers to support an initial exterior and b-roll shoot in western Maine this upcoming November 2026.

The footage we will capture on this week-long shoot will serve as both a proof of concept to showcase our style of filmmaking and convey the overall mood and tone of the project AND it will be folded into the final cut of the film.

In essence, we will be killing two birds with one stone by collecting authentic footage from our story's setting to use in our longer campaign of fundraising and getting ahead of the curve for our main block of principle photography.

The funds from this campaign will be used for crew pay, food+lodging, lens rental, travel costs, post-production and insurance.

We are so excited to be boots-on-the-ground in the location that directly inspired this story. We are actively working with our talented DP to plan shots, source locations, scope out sequences and to get the ball rolling on this deeply moving and timely story.

Anything that can be contributed goes a long way, and we are endlessly grateful for support in any form!

Please share this page and find us on instagram @vacationlandfilm

Thank you,

Jane West, writer/producer/actor

Freyja Golbach, producer

Lucy Moroukian, director