Red Blooded

A school board president who has little tolerance for immigrants, students of color, and others, gets the tables turned on her when she learns that her son is a member of the kinds of groups that she and her husband target, leading to her own lesson in acceptance.

  • Roman S. Koenig
    Writer
  • Roman S. Koenig
    Director
  • Roman S. Koenig
    Producer
  • Jennie Olson Six
    Producer
  • Rhianna Basore
    Producer
  • Denice Riddle
    Key Cast
    "Lois Green"
  • Laura Bohlin
    Key Cast
    "Kate Baumann"
  • Michael Li
    Key Cast
    "Simon Kim"
  • Cayden Dillingham
    Key Cast
    "Ben Green"
  • Sean Dillingham
    Key Cast
    "Don Green"
  • Wilson Adam Schooley
    Key Cast
    "Will Regan"
  • Kimberly King
    Key Cast
    "Carol Constantine"
  • Garrett Glassell
    Director of Photography
  • Rob Gironda
    Composer, Music Supervisor
  • Project Type:
    Short
  • Genres:
    Drama, Political
  • Runtime:
    32 minutes 2 seconds
  • Completion Date:
    June 30, 2023
  • Production Budget:
    25,000 USD
  • Country of Origin:
    United States
  • Country of Filming:
    United States
  • Language:
    English
  • Shooting Format:
    Digital 4K
  • Aspect Ratio:
    1.85:1
  • Film Color:
    Color
  • First-time Filmmaker:
    No
  • Student Project:
    No
Director Biography - Roman S. Koenig

Roman S. Koenig is a journalist, independent filmmaker, screenwriter, publisher and media professor based in San Diego, California.

His debut novel, Black Market News, is a 2021 Gold Medal President’s Award winner from the Florida Authors & Publishers Association and an official 2020 Eric Hoffer Book Award Finalist. The book is also a Recommended read by the US Review of Books.

In his recent film work, Koenig’s 2017 short film “The Frequenters” won Awards of Recognition from the international Accolade Global Film Competition and Best Shorts Competition. His 2015 short film “Thirst” was screened at the Borrego Springs Film Festival. In September 2015, the film won an Award of Merit from the international Best Shorts competition.

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Director Statement

“Red Blooded” is not a horror screenplay, as the title could lead one to believe. But it is about people behaving horribly.

As I note in a pitch for the story: “At its core, ‘Red Blooded’ is a high school drama bordering on satire — from the adults’ point of view. It’s the actions of adults that lead to bullying among the kids. It’s the actions of kids that become a mirror of change for the adults.”

I wrote the original screenplay for “Red Blooded” during the 2016 presidential campaign, built on my observations of the degenerating political discourse that I witnessed at the time. By 2019 and 2020, as the COVID-19 pandemic set in, I experienced levels of challenge not unlike many people. But I also noticed how the shrapnel of the previous four years tore into local communities — school districts, for instance.

During the summer of 2021, seeing that the story’s relevance was only increasing as the months went by, I took out the original script of “Red Blooded” and updated it to match the times even more.

In “Red Blooded,” we see a school board president learn that villainizing “the other” can have ramifications that can hit uncomfortably close to home.