RELEASE
A short psychological thriller film we're currently crowdfunding via the Australian Cultural Fund, from March 20 to April 30.
Release is a short film about Hope, a woman in her 50s, forced out of an institution into an unfamiliar world, where she finds the promise of a future in a friend and disturbing echoes of the past.
Formed by Melbourne filmmaking duo Perri Cummings and Paul Anthony Nelson, Cinema Viscera has been making stripped-back genre films since 2009. With Release, we aim to create a complex character study, with a more evocative, subjective feel than we’ve ever attempted, that will connect with audiences on a deeper level.
Inspired by the forced closure of many psychiatric institutions in Victoria in the late 1990s, and the current crisis in poverty among women over 50, Release is about Hope, a woman institutionalised for years, with limited ability to care for herself, suddenly abandoned by a thoughtless system and left to fend for herself in a world she doesn’t know. She finds work at a laundry, where she is treated with kindness by the woman who runs it, and begins to see a new future. But when she is trapped and tormented by a teenage bully, her survival instinct kicks in and she proves herself a frightening force to be reckoned with.
Your support will not only allow us to fully explore the themes and world of the film, and test new visual storytelling techniques to flesh it out, but will give us a polished, proof-of-concept film for a larger work, currently in development.
To do this, we will be collaborating with a team of talented Victoria-based creatives, including our cinematographer, sound designer, composer, and award-winning editor, and to work with a production designer, costume designer and visual effects artist for the first time. We aim to begin pre-production in May 2025, shoot around September and complete post over October-December, with a festival and release plan for 2026.
Funds raised through The Australian Cultural Fund will go directly toward key production costs, paying cast and creatives, location hire, and equipment hire. Your support will ensure Release is not only finished, but will give us the time and resources to realise our vision and, hopefully, make something truly unique.
Formed by Melbourne filmmaking duo Perri Cummings and Paul Anthony Nelson, Cinema Viscera has been making stripped-back genre films since 2009. With Release, we aim to create a complex character study, with a more evocative, subjective feel than we’ve ever attempted, that will connect with audiences on a deeper level.
Inspired by the forced closure of many psychiatric institutions in Victoria in the late 1990s, and the current crisis in poverty among women over 50, Release is about Hope, a woman institutionalised for years, with limited ability to care for herself, suddenly abandoned by a thoughtless system and left to fend for herself in a world she doesn’t know. She finds work at a laundry, where she is treated with kindness by the woman who runs it, and begins to see a new future. But when she is trapped and tormented by a teenage bully, her survival instinct kicks in and she proves herself a frightening force to be reckoned with.
Your support will not only allow us to fully explore the themes and world of the film, and test new visual storytelling techniques to flesh it out, but will give us a polished, proof-of-concept film for a larger work, currently in development.
To do this, we will be collaborating with a team of talented Victoria-based creatives, including our cinematographer, sound designer, composer, and award-winning editor, and to work with a production designer, costume designer and visual effects artist for the first time. We aim to begin pre-production in May 2025, shoot around September and complete post over October-December, with a festival and release plan for 2026.
Funds raised through The Australian Cultural Fund will go directly toward key production costs, paying cast and creatives, location hire, and equipment hire. Your support will ensure Release is not only finished, but will give us the time and resources to realise our vision and, hopefully, make something truly unique.
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Cinema Viscera acknowledges that its offices are on stolen Wurundjeri land of the Kulin Nation, and we pay our respects to Elders past, present and emerging. Sovereignty was never ceded. Cinema Viscera is contributing to the ‘Pay The Rent’ campaign and we encourage others to consider paying the rent with us: https://paytherent.net.au/
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