“Dredge” By Zach Closs

Three desperate women cross paths on a maddeningly humid afternoon in suburbia: Cora (Sarah Reny), whose ill-fated real estate venture is failing to launder drug money; Ana (Pamela Estrada), a landscape architect grooming Cora's property to support her ailing mother; and Devin (Erica Hill), a Jehovah's Witness in the wrong place at the wrong time.

The short film IN MEDIAS RUSH is an experimental cinematic journey into the depths of a manic mind. A poetic retro-sci-fi narrative unfolded in a string of unsettling tableaus that encapsulates the male protagonist’s ambiguous feelings about his birthday. While balancing between realities in his silent struggle with severe mental illness, we plunge into the film at a neatly orchestrated birthday party. The protagonist is accompanied by his girlfriend, and they are drinking cocoa on the couch in their mutual home. The setting breathes pure perfection, but through the voice over we sense that another reality is soon to be revealed. With one foot on the accelerator, he is heading towards the edge. The thematic focal point of IN MEDIAS RUSH is mental health problems among young adults, and the social/personal consequences related to the existing taboo on the subject. The film wishes to formulate an honest cinematic space in which words, sound, and image artistically interprets and articulates some of the perspectives related to especially bipolar, anxiety, and psychotic disorders. IN MEDIAS RUSH was nominated in the category 'Best Danish Short Film' at Copenhagen Short Film Festival in 2020. Original title: IN MEDIAS RÆS Directed by: Esben Persson -------------------- DK: IN MEDIAS RÆS IN MEDIAS RÆS er en filmisk rejse ind i dybderne af et manisk sind. En ung mand fejrer sin fødselsdag, mens hans tanker tordner afsted. Med en uvillig fod på speederen har han kurs mod kanten. FR: IN MEDIA RES IN MEDIA RES est un voyage dans les profondeurs d’un esprit maniaque. Un jeune homme fête son anniversaire tandis que ses pensées se multiplient. Malgré lui, il se dirige vers un point de non-retour. -------------------- Cast: Peter Alexander Bach & Amanda Overby Drew Director // Script writer // Set designer // Costume designer // Editor // Speaker: Esben Persson Photographer // Editor: Lasse Mølsted Producer: Latifa Lykke Ben Mabrouk Assistant producer: Cecilie Creutsberg Music composer: Martin Bejder Sound designer: Mads Hye Chief Lighting Technician: Rasmus Bruun Liboriussen VFX: Jonas Fonnesbæk Lodahl Colorist: Kristopher Paterson Graphic designer: Jakob Toft Kristensen -------------------- Shot on RED Monstro 8K with Lomo Squarefront Anamorphics.

I was landscaping and completely broke when I wrote “Dredge.” On high end properties, clients would often follow and watch me as I worked, waiting for any kind of mistake so they could talk down the price with my boss. That weird anxiety over yard work, along with my own suspicions about what someone had to do to own properties so expensive and beautiful, translated into the suspense and paranoia that’s key to the story. 

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As a city-dweller, I’ve always found myself strangely uncomfortable in quiet, “innocuous” suburbia, which seemed an unlikely but interesting setting for a film about class, and the simmering threat of sudden violence. Ana and Cora, respectively the free agent and the corporate goon, are both desperate; they’re hungry, overworked, and underpaid. That desperation boils over on a maddeningly humid day. How long ago in our evolution as a species would a freshly killed animal look appetizing? And, in our unsustainable world, how long until we might be pushed to the edge in surprising ways?

Zach Closs - Director

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Credits

Cast: Pamela Estrada, Sarah Reny, Erica Hill & Ted Powers
Writer/Director: Zach Closs
Producer: Joe Craib
Production: Wild Flicks, Start The Picture
Cinematography: Steven McDonnell
Editor: Nick Brooks
Composer: Jordan Shew
Makeup & Prosthetics: Natalia Andrea Pozo & Daniella Pluchino
Production Design: Michael Au
1st AC: Alicia Baggieri
Sound Recordist: Siyu Han
Post Sound, ADR, Mixing: Jordan Shew
Sound Editor: Jerm van Leeuwen
Colourist: Erik Bayley
VFX: Nick Brooks
Post Consultant: Jordan Dawson
Swing: Kurtis Watson
PA: Harriet Bramwell

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