In This, Our Time

Dealing with compromise, loneliness, and the unmet expectations of the American Dream, a middle-class family grapples with the distance between the lives they imagined and the lives they are living.

In This, Our Time explores the nature of abuse and the struggle to survive in its aftermath. Maggie is the tough, troubled mother of Jules, a preternaturally wise 16 year old girl. While her long-time boyfriend Billy attempts to cobble together a stable home for Jules, Maggie is frequently absent, battling with the monsters that threaten the secure family life she wants but can’t live. Caught in the wake of her mother’s actions, in the end, Jules is forced to confront whether the American Dream she has been fed is just that…a dream.

  • Alexander Dinelaris
    Director
  • Alexander Dinelaris
    Writer
    Birdman or (The Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance)
  • Alexander Dinelaris
    Producer
    The Revenant (Co-Producer), Birdman or (The Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance) (Associate Producer)
  • Richard Saperstein
    Producer
    Se7en, Hancock, Jon Q, Devil's Knot, Cell, The Long Kiss Goodnight
  • Steven Pasquale
    Key Cast
    "Billy"
    Aliens vs Predator: Requiem, American Crime Story, Rescue Me, Divorce, Doubt, The Good Wife
  • Olivia Nikkanen
    Key Cast
    "Jules"
    The Society, Girl Followed
  • Natalie Gold
    Key Cast
    "Maggie"
    Succession, The Leftovers, Birdman or (The Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance), The Land Of Steady Habits, Collateral Beauty, Alpha House
  • Barry Markowitz
    Director of Photography
    LBJ, Crazy Heart, All The Pretty Horses, The Apostle, Sling Blade
  • Andrew Leven
    Editor
    Gemini Man (1st Asst Editor), Billy Lynn's Long Halftime Walk (1st Asst Editor), Sisters (Asst Editor), A Most Violent Year (2nd Asst Editor), Mad Men (Asst Editor)
  • Project Type:
    Short
  • Runtime:
    34 minutes 32 seconds
  • Completion Date:
    August 22, 2019
  • Production Budget:
    227,000 USD
  • Country of Origin:
    United States
  • Country of Filming:
    United States
  • Language:
    English
  • Shooting Format:
    Digital
  • Aspect Ratio:
    2.39
  • Film Color:
    Color
  • First-time Filmmaker:
    Yes
  • Student Project:
    No
Director Biography - Alexander Dinelaris

Alex is an Academy Award® and Golden Globe® winning screenwriter for Birdman (or The Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance), a co-producer on the three time Academy Award® winning film The Revenant, as well as the screenwriter for Entering Hades and Jekyll & Hyde, both in development. He is also the book writer for the Broadway musical On Your Feet!, and the West End musical of The Bodyguard. He started his career as a theatre director and playwright in New York, where his plays Still Life and Red Dog Howls were produced by Manhattan Class Company and New York Theater Workshop respectively. In This, Our Time marks Alexander’s debut as a film director.

Alex is the Founder and President of Lexicon, a development company focused on screenwriters. Lexicon’s mission is to create a home for exceptional writers - supporting, mentoring and protecting their stories, from conception through production. The company’s Script First approach champions skilled narrative storytelling across all genres and content platforms.

Alex is a New York native, born in Washington Heights.

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Director Statement

In This, Our Time is an intensely personal story for me; that's why I wrote it, and was compelled to direct it as my first film. To me, it is a story about the terrible, destructive nature of abuse, and how it threatens to overwhelm those in its wake. Maggie, a mother who, because of unspoken trauma is most comfortable in the dark, dehumanizing spaces that have come to define her self-worth. Billy, an imperfect savior, doing everything he can to preserve the idea of a perfect family. And Jules, an intelligent though fragile teen on the verge of womanhood, who is petrified of losing the only stabilizing presence she has ever known, just when she needs him most.

I set the story against the landscape of the suburban middle class, the place and the people I grew up with. Those who Thoreau would say, “live lives of quiet desperation”. In its own way, it is an indictment of the “American Dream”, and the notion that if we are just “strong enough”, we can overcome anything - lack of education, income inequality, even psychological trauma - and become everything we ever dreamed. A lie most people I grew up with stopped buying generations ago.

The source of the abuse, the “original sin”, is intentionally never identified, because that's generally the truth in real life. What is left is the behavior. The struggle. The desperation. And, God willing, the courage to battle on.

In This, Our Time is a film about my childhood, my family and the town I grew up in. I hope it is a film about the fragile nature of survival.