Kickstarter

OUR FILM

Tokens is about one of the most foundational, and complicated, relationships there is—that between an aging father and his adult daughter. They have a lifetime of shared memories, both poisonous and positive, that they've carried like stones in their pockets, weighing them both down. Despite loving each other, the ruined orbit of their relationship—fighting, fuming, feeling guilty, reaching out, repeating—became too much to bear. They stopped speaking. For 16 months they crouched in their defensive positions, separated by 75 miles of highway and impressive reserves of stubbornness.  

They both know time is running out to repair their relationship once and for all. They decide, finally, to try one more time to bridge the chasm between them. A weekend in the woods, away from distraction and, hopefully, distress, will provide the materials to build that bridge.

They go into this weekend hoping everything will change. It's exactly what they get.

HELP FUND OUR PROJECT

We’ve reached our base funding goal!!!! We have been humbled and honored by this process and are overwhelmed by all of your generosity. We’ve hit our base goal far more quickly than we could have dreamed. As with many Kickstarter projects we were conservative in seting our goal.

All additional funds will go directly to helping us produce the beautiful cinematic film we hope to create. Post-production, sound editing, screening events, festival submissions weren’t included in the base goal. Additional fund would also help to pay our cast and crew who have committed to our project with little or no pay. We are very lucky to have them giving their blood, sweat and tears and would love to be able to pay them, even if just a token, to honor their professionalism and creativity we know they will provide in abundance.

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WHAT WOULD HAPPEN IF YOU SAID WHAT YOU'VE LONGED TO SAY?

A surprising thing happened as we began work on the script. As with most projects that take up a lot of your time, you end up talking to your friends and family about it. I've talked about a lot of stories to my friends and family, and most of the time they're very politely half-interested..."Well yes, I do think a musical about the Dreyfus Affair would be intriguing." That's sweet, mom. 

Almost everyone we talked to about Tokens personalized it almost immediately. We were stunned by people’s willingness, often eagerness, to marry their voices to our project. We had the audacity (or is it temerity?) to ask people to look into a camera and speak openly, honestly, and sometimes brutally about these crucial relationships.  Astonishingly, they did. The refrain we kept hearing, again and again, was “I’ve always wanted to say this to my father/daughter.” Yet they never did. Until now. 

We've edited these beautiful, personal videos below, and will continue to compile your voices to create a larger tapestry of real voices saying the things they've longed to say.

Share your Story 

What would you say if you had one last chance to open up to your father or daughter?

There can be no better way to highlight what we hope to accomplish with Tokens than through the voices of real people talking about their real relationships. So, tell us what your relationship means to you, what you love about it, or how you wish it could change. Tell us, if you could say something you've longed to say, would you? Could you? What would it be?

Watch the stories people have told, and share your stories on our website.

WHO WE ARE

JESSICA KAHLER | daughter
Jessica has performed on stage in collaboration with The Internationalists, The Public Theater, The Overturn Theatre Ensemble, The Woman's Project, and LAByrinth Theater Company among others. She has appeared in various independent films shot in NYC, Sydney, and Boston. She has a BFA from Emerson College where she studied with Kristin Linklator and is a recent graduate of the Maggi  e Flanigan Studio in NYC.

ROY CLARY | father
Roy has appeared off-Broadway, off-off-Broadway, and at such regional theaters as the Seattle Rep, Great Lakes Shakespeare Festival, Brooklyn Academy of Music, Cleveland Play House, Barter Theatre, Kitchen Theatre, and the Brandeis Professional Theater (with Morris Carnovsky). His roles range from Shakespeare to Neil Simon. In 2008, he appeared in McReele, for which he received an NY Innovative Theater Award nomination as Best Featured Actor in an off-off-Broadway production. He has also directed productions in regional theater and appeared in film and TV.  He has an MFA from the Goodman Theatre School and studied in New York with Uta Hagen.

BRYAN ABRAMS | writer
I co-wrote the feature-length screenplay for Knucklehead, which was shot last year on a very small budget with Oscar-nominated Alfre Woodard and Gbenga Akkinagbe, one of the stars of HBO's The Wire. Knucklehead will be on the festival circuit in 2013. I've been a journalist for eight years. I live and work in New York. The only movie I've ever been successful at quoting at length is The Big Lebowski, which recently led me to the sad fact that I never realized the Port Huron statement is a real thing. Also, I was on America's only elephant polo team in 2008 and 2009. We won a silver medal at the international tournament in Nepal.

EIN | director
EIN graduated from Temple University in Film and Media Arts. He produced, directed, shot and scored the documentary Searching for Sunlight and he was the DP on December Art. He also recently wrote and directed two independent short films, Insignificant and Children, which are being submitted into the 2013 festival circuit. He has worked throughout the U.S. and globally in Cambodia, the Philippines, and Mexico.

PETER DRUBIN | co-producer
Creative Director with 20 years’ experience helping artists, brands, and organizations connect with their audiences, customers, and communities.

BRENT WILLIAMS | co-producer 

Father of Bella Starr-10 and Eve Naveen-7

FILM by NUMBERS | www.filmbynumbers.net
We tell stories that explore relationships, the ones that define who we are and who we will become. The ones we neglect and the ones that reverberate throughout our lives in ways we often do not recognize.

THANK YOU for taking the time to check out our Kickstarter page. From EIN, Brent, Pete (our two executive producers and half of our Film By Numbers team) and myself, we truly appreciate it. No one gets anywhere alone.