LOONS
Mallory and Clay are two estranged siblings who lost touch after their parent's divorce eight years ago. To escape her failing marriage in LA, Mallory heads to her family's lake cabin in Minnesota, only to run into Clay, who has been living there on unemployment. They reconnect over a weekend filled with arguments, laughter, trips down memory lane, and an unexpected crisis. "Loons" is a film about growing up, mending family ties, and just trying not to end up "disappointments."
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Grace PotterDirector
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Jake LevittWriter
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Laura DoolingWriter
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Laura DoolingProducer
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Jake LevittProducer
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Laura DoolingKey Cast"Mallory"
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Jake LevittKey Cast"Clay"
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Sam WoottonCinematographer
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Arlo AnwinOriginal Music
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Seth PioskeSound
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Jake LevittEditor
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James TillettColorist
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Catherine DoolingCostume Design
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Lindsey AndonProps & Set Decoration
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Ben RobertsonAssistant Director
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Thomas W. Cameron IIIFirst Assistant Camera
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KaylaAnne GlickGrip
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Billy StraubGaffer
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Malia BantzProduction Assistant
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Project Type:Short
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Genres:drama, comedy, dramedy
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Runtime:23 minutes 6 seconds
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Completion Date:February 1, 2022
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Production Budget:25,000 USD
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Country of Origin:United States
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Country of Filming:United States
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Language:English
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Shooting Format:Digital
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Aspect Ratio:1.85:1
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Film Color:Color
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First-time Filmmaker:No
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Student Project:No
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Minneapolis St. Paul International Film FestivalMinneapolis. MN
United States
May 8, 2022
World Premiere
Grace is an Austin native who currently splits her time between LA and Austin. She is a writer, director, and designer, passionate about telling character-driven narratives. She has spent the past couple of years being mentored by New York theater director Lila Neugebauer. Grace really loves magic and movies but not movies about magic.
This is a film about connections — connections you lose and hope to find again, connections you avoid and are scared to reignite, connections you grow too accustomed to and need to escape. It’s also about family and the viscerally specific bond between siblings that endures, no matter how far you drift apart. Loons embraces the awkwardness of trying to resume where you left off, with yourself or the ones you’ve left behind, in the hopes that you still have something to build on.
Our production was steeped in new connections: We were first-time collaborators, crafting a film that landed on a set with a uniquely talented group of crew members from four states with varying levels of experience. By the time filming wrapped, everyone had already started planning ways to work together again. It’s a rare thing to find people who are looking to establish the same energy on set, and who speak the same language aesthetically, emotionally, and cinematically.
We wrote and planned this film in the depths of the pandemic, when everyone’s connections were strained and faltering, and we were desperate to create something positive and warm to put out into the world that showed that lost connections weren’t gone forever. We’re so proud of the film that resulted from that impulse, and we can’t wait to have you connect with it as well.