Experiencing Interruptions?

Blue

Stuck somewhere between his idyllic life and his haunting memories, all Blue wants is to go fishing with his son.

His son Daniel is everything to him, most importantly the person who makes him forget the difficulties of his own troubled childhood of poverty. But when Blue takes Daniel fishing one day, the child keeps going missing, turning his world blue. His childhood priest notices that something is not right when he runs into him at the local diner and follows Blue. In the world of Blue, its what's in the background...

  • Ziad Foty
    Director
    El Mahal
  • Jeffrey Brown
    Writer
  • Ziad Foty
    Writer
    El Mahal
  • Lisa Thrasher
    Producer
    Itty Bitty Titty Committee, Little Black Boot, Billy's Dad is a Fudge-Packer,
  • Rob LaColla
    Key Cast
    "Blue"
    Skin
  • Amr El-Bayoumi
    Key Cast
    "Father Daoud"
    Captain Phillips
  • Julian Galano
    Key Cast
    "Daniel"
  • Vanessa Meadows
    Key Cast
    "Joanna"
    Mother&Son
  • Janae Palmer
    Key Cast
    "Cindy"
    The Special
  • Clayton Brown
    Key Cast
    "Young Blue"
  • Damien Coor
    Director of Photography
    Secret City Bluz, Burp
  • Steven Gorbos
    Composer
  • Maxwell Loeb
    Editor
    I Wanna Be French
  • Nikki Smallwood
    Production Design
    Mi Tierra
  • Nikki Smallwood
    Costume Designer
    The Turtle Dreamers
  • Jeffrey Brown
    Executive Producer
  • Ahmed Sabbour
    Sound Designer and Mixer
    The Epic Tales of Captain Underpants
  • David M. Packer
    Colorist and Graphics
  • Project Type:
    Short
  • Genres:
    Drama, suspense
  • Runtime:
    16 minutes 40 seconds
  • Completion Date:
    January 1, 2021
  • Production Budget:
    25,000 USD
  • Country of Origin:
    United States
  • Country of Filming:
    United States
  • Language:
    English
  • Shooting Format:
    Digital, Alexa Mini
  • Aspect Ratio:
    2.39:1
  • Film Color:
    Color
  • First-time Filmmaker:
    No
  • Student Project:
    No
Director Biography - Ziad Foty

Founder of Foty Fusion Films, Ziad Foty is an independent director, writer, and producer based in the DMV area. His films seek to highlight underrepresented stories in an effort to challenge the dominant representation in cinema.

His experience in documentary, experimental, and narrative conventions has led to the production of a diverse crop of films including experimental short “The Strange Ways of the Occident” (2015), short documentary film “The Renaissance Man” (2017) about a DC native combatting gentrification through art, short narrative film “El Mahal” (2019) about a Palestinian-American’s struggle to survive in a family-run grocery store, and his debut feature documentary "Return to Ramallah" (2021) about his father returning back to his native Palestine after 40 years in America.

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Director Statement

Blue (2021) is a film that is loosely based on Executive Producer and Co-Writer Jeff Brown’s incredible story of growing up in Johnstown, Pennsylvania. Jeff and I first met playing basketball and we decided to write the screenplay together.

The initial inspiration for the film was centered around the fact that Jeff’s mother would leave him in the car while she went to work because they were too poor to afford a baby sitter. In addition, Jeff’s father tragically passed away when he was only four; leaving a hole in Jeff’s heart. I became fascinated with the importance of the father-son relationship and how trauma manifests in an individual when that bond is abruptly severed. The coping mechanisms for survival became the subject of my fascination. I found that to survive having lost a loved one centers around recreating the world that they used to inhabit to fill the void. In the film, Blue is our main character but also a thematic backdrop that colors the tonal composition of the picture. My hope is that this film provides an accurate representation of the trauma that someone dealing with the loss of a loved one is experiencing.