Snowflake #5391

Charles Robert is an American attorney who has spent his entire life fighting for his elderly clients in need of social security benefits. This leads him into a legal quest to uncover classified documents that will prove the government is spying on American citizens.
However, as he gets closer to the truth, the government puts Charles in its cross hairs, ruining his career with scandal and false allegations. His wife and two children support Charles in his legal battle with fast wit and love. Now in their forties, his children have lived with their father’s obsession their entire lives. Real-world consequences pile up around Charles, and family tensions are brought to the surface. The rabbit hole deepens when Charles discovers redacted CIA documents referring to him by a code name: SnowFlake #5391.
The CIA barely acknowledges the existence of these documents about him and fight tooth and nail for decades in the courts to withhold this evidence. Piece by piece, Charles puts together a picture of a government working in the shadows, writing laws in secret, justifying unprecedented spying and information access.

  • Alex P. Willson
    Director
    G.I. Joe: Retaliation (2013) | Terminator Genisys (2015) | The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn - Part 1 (2011)
  • Declan Ryan
    Producer
    The Expendables (2010) | Green Lantern (2011) | Terminator Genisys (2015)
  • Renee Ragucci Shelton
    Producer
    22 Jump Street (2014) | The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn - Part 2 (2012) | The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn - Part 1 (2011)
  • Charles Robert
    Key Cast
  • Ryan Dufrene
    Editors
    The Getaway 2013, Camera Store 2017, Re-Kill 2015
  • Eva Contis
    Editors
    Olympus has Fallen 2013, The Iceman 2012,Battle Field Home: Breaking the Silence 2017
  • Project Type:
    Documentary
  • Genres:
    Drama, Comedy, mystery, thriller, conspiracy, Government
  • Runtime:
    1 minute 10 seconds
  • Production Budget:
    350,000 USD
  • Country of Origin:
    United States
  • Country of Filming:
    United States
  • Language:
    English
  • Shooting Format:
    1080, 2k, 4k, 6k
  • Film Color:
    Color
  • First-time Filmmaker:
    No
  • Student Project:
    No
Director Biography - Alex P. Willson

Alex P. Willson (Director/Producer) is an American filmmaker and journalist who lives in Los Angeles and New Orleans. He’s spent many years working and traveling the globe. He has directed a number of short form documentaries and commercials. His work has appeared on Channel 4 News London, PBS, and the Wall Street Journal, and he has made branded video content for diverse clients such as Tulane University, the International Organization on Migration, and Days for Girls. Additionally, his credits in the camera and lighting department range from independents to some of the biggest budget Hollywood films ever made.
He speaks conversational Bahasa Indonesian and Spanish. On the side, he co-runs an international nonprofit called Learn To Live, specializing in delivering health care education and building reproducible, sustainable, clean drinking water systems in remote parts of Indonesia, Laos, and South Africa.

Add Director Biography
Director Statement

Charles Robert has spent over 20 years tracking social security funding in the USA. He insists the government is allegedly misusing the funds for NSA endeavors. For the last two years, I have spent countless hours fact-checking and researching all the details presented by Charles. Currently 4TB's of footage has have been compiled into a very rough timeline to hash out story points and flush out the script. Final interviews and key B-roll will be shot over the first few months of 2017, as post post-production and editing ramps up, for a release in early 2018.
Documentary Producer, Declan Ryan of SHELLSHOCKED, ULBERT, and FOURBANGERS and producer Producer Renee Ragucci-Shelton, Riain Rising's Rising’s VP, have come aboard to handle development through delivery and present the project to potential investors. The project is currently seeking funding, as we continue to gather interviews and track progress with Charles’s case.

SnowFlake #5391 will be told in an exciting, fast-paced style, which floats back and forth through the decades, through memories and events that are sometimes shadowy and faded from time and differing perspectives. Charles’s own obsessive, sometimes manic personality will inform the [suspenseful pace of the editing]; info graphics and animated titles will reinforce the various key facts and acronyms for the viewer.
The material covered in this film is rather dense and keeps the film moving forward, building suspense as the film’s mystery is revealed through shifts in time; the film will repeat those key facts and names so viewers can absorb the info. A major goal of the film is to spark political conversation by grounding these issues in real life.
The film’s tone is fun overall, as our characters themselves are witty and charming, even though their work is dire and serious. There are definite laughs and light moments and comical fourth-wall breaks. These characters are what makes this topic so easily accessible. Vintage B-roll of CIA training videos and Frank Sinatra gangster films are interspersed in place of reenactments. A rock and roll soundtrack and punk aesthetic in the vein of artists like Shepard Fairey and Banksy will reinforce its gonzo edge and Orwellian overtones.