Welcome to our Can Fish Be Sad?
Post-Production Crowdfunding Page!
What's our short film all about? Well, it's about a suburban woman who gets kidnapped by a strange man determined to uncover the truth about her life and her marriage, one absurd question at a time!
Can Fish Be Sad? is a dark comedy about how people change and forget to tell each other. It explores how people can be in a relationship for years and still need a kidnapper with gardening shears to get a conversation going.
Help us finish it! Because “How was your day, honey?” clearly isn’t cutting it.
Here's the good news... we've already shot our film!
Can Fish Be Sad? has already been shot! Which means we successfully convinced a group of talented adults to spend several days pretending that kidnapping a woman and interrogating her about her husband's low level of sexiness was a legitimate artistic enterprise.
Now comes the less glamorous part: the dreaded post-production, which includes editing, sound, color, music, and mastering. Getting the film onto the festival circuit ain't cheap.
So we’re raising $8,700 to help finish our short film.
No, really! That's us shooting our film. And we had a good time doing it. But we spent all our money on cameras and lights and bad food, and good actors. Now we need your help in getting it onto the big screen. So here's a little rundown of what we've been up to and how you can help...
Here's why we think this story matters and why we shot it...
Can Fish Be Sad?, is a dark comedy that follows Debra Henderson, a suburban wife, mother, and grandmother who is kidnapped and interrogated by a man with a clipboard, gardening shears, and an alarming interest in her emotional well-being. What begins as a hostage situation gradually becomes something much more frightening: an honest conversation about marriage, motherhood, bad sex, and whether fish experience existential despair. In Can Fish Be Sad?, the kidnapper isn’t interested in solving a crime. He’s interested in solving a marriage. He approaches emotional intimacy with the detached certainty of an accountant auditing a ledger. Every tiny domestic habit becomes evidence. Every unanswered question becomes suspicious.
The comedy hopefully comes from its absolute sincerity. No character believes they're participating in something absurd. The kidnapper really thinks his work is essential. And Debra is simply adapting to increasingly bizarre circumstances with the resilience of someone who has already survived worse things. Beneath the absurdity is a quieter story about loneliness and not being appreciated by the people you’re closest to.
Debra has become so accustomed to carrying the invisible labor of a relationship that even being kidnapped is just another inconvenience she has to manage. Visually, Ms. Russell wanted the film to begin in a recognizable domestic reality and slowly drift into something that feels only slightly impossible. The line between realism and absurdity should definitely be blurred. Because, well, that's the world we're living in. It's a small film but hopefully the metaphors are there. And here's a little about who helped make our short film...
The Team
(Just so you know we've been around the block and done some stuff)
Pamela August Russell - The Writer/Director
Pamela August Russell writes about complicated, unapologetic women, life's unreasonable disappointments, the joy of dysfunctional relationships, and the increasingly suspicious idea that adulthood was supposed to work out better than it has for most of us.
Her short film Death of a Writer screened at the Frameline International Film Festival. Her play Invisible Women won the John Lion New Plays Festival and was produced at the Luckman Fine Arts Theater. She wrote for Paramount Pictures Digital Entertainment, which proved that at some point a major corporation willingly gave her a keyboard and asked for her opinion.
She’s also the author of the humor book B Is for Bad Poetry, because apparently the market needed intentionally terrible poetry, and she had the courage, and poor judgment, to fill it.
She lives in Los Angeles near the freeway.
Joanne Duray - The Producer
Joanne Duray is a seasoned Showrunner/Executive Producer and short-form fiction Producer. Her latest TV project, the 6-part documentary series “Watch the Sound with Mark Ronson”, is currently streaming on Apple TV +. Variety named it one of the Top 10 TV Shows of 2021. It was directed and Executive Produced by Academy Award Winner Morgan Neville. She's also the Creative Producer of the ESPN sports documentary Being Young, focusing on Alabama quarterback Bryce Young and the Supreme Court’s ruling affecting amateur athletes’ rights to their Name, Image, and Likeness (NIL).
She also produced the Morgan Neville-directed short documentary, Facing Facts: An Inside Look Into Facebook’s Fight Against Misinformation, as well as the award-winning short narrative film, Underground, which explores the ideas of prejudice and perception.
Sally Dana as Debra Henderson
As a veteran of the San Francisco theater scene, Sally has performed with the Magic Theatre, San Francisco Playhouse, Campo Santo, Central Works, B Street Theatre, 3Girls Theatre and many others. At SF Playhouse, she appeared in Robert O’Hara’s Barbecue, the world premiere of Kristen Greenidge’s Zenith, On Clover Road and Dogfight, frequently playing multiple characters in the same production because apparently playing one person at a time wasn't sufficiently taxing.
She originated the role of Danielle in Naomi Iizuka’s The Language of Angels with Campo Santo, earning a Dean Goodman’s Choice Award, and was an ensemble member of Julie Taymor and Elliot Goldenthal’s Obie Award-winning, Tony-nominated Juan Darien. Her film work includes Welcome Space Brothers, Ever Since the World Ended, and JFK: Aiming for the Truth. She also lent her voice to play the Devil in The God and Devil Show, and video games including DOA2 and Watch Dogs 2.
Frankly, after voicing Satan, playing Debra Henderson seemed emotionally straightforward.
Matt Saunders as Mark Henderson
Matt Saunders is a Los Angeles-based actor and proud Angeleno of 26 years. He earned his BFA in Acting from Southern Methodist University and is thrilled to return to acting with this meaningful project after several years away. Matt is grateful to share this experience while enjoying life with his beautiful wife and daughter.
Production Note: We've met them and, quite frankly, they really are delightful.
Now here's the funding part: editing, color correction, sound design, and music cost money. Without them, we have twelve minutes of a woman having a terrible day under fluorescent lighting. With them, we have an amazing short film!
We’ve kidnapped Debra. Now we need money to release her.
So here's a little bit about how we will spend your contribution...
$3,900 for Editing our film.
It helps our editor sharpen the jokes, tighten the tension, and cut the film so Debra can keep her fingers...for now.
$1,500 for Sound Editing & Design
For dialogue cleanup and sound effects. Because the gardening shears should sound terrifying, but the refrigerator shouldn’t.
$1,200 for Color Correction and Grading
This is for matching shots and shaping the look of the film. Debra’s marriage may be getting dull, but our film shouldn’t be.
$1,500 for Music and Sound Score
A good score that knows when to build suspense and when to acknowledge that maybe this woman really should have stayed single.
$600 for Titles, Captions and Deliverables
Titles, Captions and screening files so Debra’s kidnapping can reach an audience. She’s suffered enough without an unsupported file format.
Your contribution of any amount, no matter how big or small, can help! So here's a little something in exchange for your help with our CAN FISH BE SAD? perks and stuff for donating...
Can Fish Be Sad? | Crowdfundr Rewards
$10 | THE MARRIAGE AUDIT
Your relationship is now under investigation.
Receive a downloadable Official Marriage Audit Questionnaire featuring the same kind of wildly inappropriate questions Debra is forced to answer, plus a personalized digital thank-you graphic you can share on social media. No actual spouse required. Emotional availability optional. Digital delivery.
$25 | PERSON OF INTEREST
Congratulations. You're officially suspicious.
Everything in the $10 reward, plus a personalized Person of Interest case-file graphic featuring your name, case number and a completely fabricated reason you're under investigation. You'll also receive access to a private online screening of Can Fish Be Sad? when available, subject to festival restrictions. Perfect for sharing publicly and alarming relatives. Digital delivery.
$50 | THE EMOTIONAL DAMAGE REPORT
Your answers have been reviewed. The findings are troubling.
Everything in the $25 reward, plus a personalized Marriage Audit Report featuring an absurd relationship score, questionable psychological conclusions and an official recommendation from the Department of Marital Disappointment. You'll also receive an acknowledgment on our online supporters page. Your results will remain confidential. Unless they're particularly funny. Digital delivery.
$100 | THE WITNESS PROTECTION PROGRAM
You've seen too much. Unfortunately, there's more.
Everything in the $50 reward, plus a Special Thanks credit in the finished film and an invitation to a virtual filmmaker Q&A following an authorized private screening.
We'll discuss filmmaking, kidnapping and why no one simply asked Debra how she was feeling.
Digital rewards and virtual event.
$250 | SENIOR INTERROGATION OFFICER
You've been promoted. This reflects poorly on everyone.
Everything in the $100 reward, plus a prominent Special Thanks credit and an invitation to a cast-and-crew screening in the Los Angeles area, if one is held. Travel and accommodations are not included. Or a virtual screening alternative will be provided.
No actual interrogation experience necessary. But it's helpful.
$500 | DEPARTMENT OF EXISTENTIAL AFFAIRS
You are now a major financial concern.
Everything in the $250 reward, plus an Associate Patron thank-you acknowledgment in the film's credits and if you like, a private 30-minute virtual conversation with writer/director Pamela August Russell about the film, directing, dark comedy and the alarming business of making independent movies.
Or we can just talk about gardening equipment.
$1,000 | THE FISH WHISPERER
At this level, we assume you know something.
Everything in the $500 reward, plus a Major Patron acknowledgment in the film's credits, a personalized thank-you video from Pamela, and an invitation to a private virtual discussion of the film's creation and post-production process.
Your generosity will be remembered. And p ossibly entered into evidence.
If you believe independent films should contain more complicated women, more uncomfortable truths, and at least one credible threat involving gardening equipment, please consider supporting our short film!
And thank you for supporting the arts!
