News release
Newhall residents Ralston and Alicia Vaz, the filmmaking team behind independent production company Thinkory, have launched a crowdfunding campaign for “Holding Court,” a dramatic short film currently in pre-production.
Written and directed by Ralston and produced by Alicia, the film follows Court, a grief-suppressed teen with a rare chance to get into a world-class writing conservatory, said a news release from the filmmakers. Over the course of one tense night, he struggles to write a soul-searching poem as his house is overrun by partygoers.
Beneath that pressure, the release said, the film examines a broader human tension: how quickly people decide they understand someone else before taking the time to ask or listen. At the center of the story is a deceptively simple question: What are you carrying?
“I don’t think we take enough time to understand that about one another,” Ralston said in the release. “We move fast, collide with one another, and take a person’s reaction for who they are. Are we losing the capacity to really see and listen to one another with genuine curiosity? I think so, and that feels like an urgent problem to me right now. And that urgency, in large part, motivated this story.”
The filmmakers seek to raise $30,000 through Seed&Spark, a crowdfunding platform focused on independent film and storytelling. Funds will support production as well as kickstart post-production and the film’s festival run later, the release said.
“Holding Court” is fiscally sponsored by From the Heart Productions, allowing financial contributions to the project to be tax-deductible, the release said. The crowdfunding campaign and locally produced concept trailer are available at seedandspark.com/fund/holding-court.
