THE PLAN

A six-chapter film with four primary goals:

1.   To explore the human psyche, rendering geographical space into a psychological map

§  This is a journey film, moving north from Stockholm (chapters I and II), then to Lulea (chapters III and IV), and finally to Kiruna (chapters V and VI).

§  Chapters I-V present a devastating state of human consciousness, respectively: shame and guilt, rage and depression, and isolation. Chapter VI is the release or awakening, which occurs in Kiruna in July, when the sun never sets.

§  Each chapter features its own young, female protagonist experiencing the aforementioned state of consciousness. Each story is unique, but contributes to the film’s developmental arc.

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2.   To relate August Strindberg’s conception of “the dreamer,” described in the prefatory note of A Dream Play (See Update 1)

§  Reality to these characters will seem as a dream, as they see the world through their distorted lenses of psychosis.

§  The dream that is their reality is unremitting torture.

§  Release and catharsis comes from complete isolation, and then awakening from the dream.

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3.   To reinvent and contemporize the French / British New Wave conception of the young, disillusioned wanderer

§  Our wanderer is female (unlike those drifting characters in Look Back in Anger, The 400 Blows, The Loneliness of the Long Distance Runner, Pierrot le Fou, etc.). This character hints more at Charlotte Gainsbourg in Lars von Trier’s Antichrist (sans sexual horror) with emphasis on Strindberg’s original understanding of “the dreamer,” and Dostoevsky's wanderer in Notes from the Underground.

§  Our wanderer is trapped by her own mind (she is “self-cocooning,” to quote Errol Morris), not by oppressive cultural or familial institutions.

§  Our wanderer is different versions of the same person, a character triplet of young women at different psychological moments. All versions of her share a collective memory.

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4.   To engage in a social experiment

§  The protagonist of each vignette is being contacted through CouchSurfing.org.

§  The craft also lies in the process: each protagonist will have the opportunity to send me something that inspires them before I start writing their narrative. I will use whatever they choose to determine the exact events of their chapter. This way, their personality as a real human being, not as a character, becomes legible in the final product.

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PRIMARY INSPIRATIONS: A Dream Play – August Strindberg, Inferno – August Strindberg, Antichrist – Lars von Trier, Notes from the Underground – Fyodor Dostoevsky, Wild Strawberries – Ingmar Bergman, Shame – Steve McQueen, Mr. Death – Errol Morris, Caravaggio, Pieter Breugel the Elder, Rogier van der Weyden, Gericault, etc.
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WHAT TO EXPECT

See Update 4 for my list of filmmaking principles.

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THE PURPOSE OF YOUR DONATION:

Equipment: Panasonic HMC40, small boom mike, high capacity memory cards

Filming will take 3-4 weeks, and I simply need enough support to maintain myself over that period (not including housing, as I will find people through CouchSurfing.org to stay with). This mostly means food.

Transportation costs to the different locations and finally home.

Unexpected costs incurred – travel can be unpredictable.

As you can probably tell, $2,000 isn't nearly enough to cover all these things, so please give as generously as you can. I will be broke when this is finished.

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Here's an example of my work:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k1XJiNZ9ClU&feature=plcp&context=C4f0a281VDvjVQa1PpcFN2gfShKRIgEIz3z2FhKwCnnqPV0zuVq9o=