Red Line

A young man has a series of stressful interactions on a late-night subway ride that harden him to a fault.

  • Jake Bistrong
    Director
  • Jake Bistrong
    Writer
  • Jake Bistrong
    Producer
  • Josh Folan
    Producer
    Ask For Jane, The Light of the Moon, BODY, catch 22
  • Ian David Bossung
    Key Cast
    "Joe"
  • Cecil Jennings
    Key Cast
    "Dave"
  • Leaf Rickard
    Key Cast
    "Marion"
  • Ray Ray Livingston
    Key Cast
    "Ray Ray"
  • Chris Ready
    Key Cast
    "Richie"
  • Theo Cowen
    Editor
    We the Kings
  • Cecil Jennings
    Executive Producer
  • Ian David Bossung
    Executive Producer
  • Elizabeth Bistrong
    Executive Producer
  • James Wolf
    Executive Producer
  • Project Type:
    Short
  • Genres:
    Drama
  • Runtime:
    15 minutes 18 seconds
  • Completion Date:
    October 1, 2021
  • Production Budget:
    35,000 USD
  • Country of Origin:
    United States
  • Country of Filming:
    United States
  • Language:
    English
  • Shooting Format:
    RED 8K
  • Aspect Ratio:
    1.85:1
  • Film Color:
    Color
  • First-time Filmmaker:
    Yes
  • Student Project:
    No
  • 2020 HollyShorts Screenplay Contest

    Official Selection
  • 2022 Tallgrass Film Festival
    Wichita, Kansas
    United States
    October 2, 2022
    World Premiere
    Official Selection
  • 2022 Portland Film Festival
    Portland, Oregon
    United States
    October 15, 2022
    West Coast Premiere
    Official Selection
  • 2022 Flickers' Rhode Island International Film Festival
    Providence, Rhode Island
    United States
    Semi-Finalist
  • 2022 Lone Star Film Film Festival
    Forth Worth, Texas
    United States
    November 10, 2022
    Official Selection
  • 2023 Fargo Film Festival
    Fargo, North Dakota
    United States
    Official Selection
Director Biography - Jake Bistrong

Charles Jacob Bistrong, or “Jake”, lived 26 years full of passion, drive, curiosity, an humor. Jake passed away peacefully and unexpectedly on June 8th, 2021. Jake made strong impressions on everyone he met; he had an uncanny ability to capture the attention of those around him. Jake had many dreams throughout the years, including being a rapper, the president, and a supreme court justice, all of which he pursued fervently. When he put his mind to something, he was truly unstoppable.

In 2018, Jake moved to Los Angeles to become a film maker. He had no formal training, so he spent hours watching films, reading books from his favorite directors, and drawing inspiration anywhere he could. Jake was highly detail oriented and meticulous, spending over 8 hours riding the metro to create to perfect set for Red Line. He was a film producer, director, and writer, with Red Line being his debut. The production of the nearly finished film continued after his passing and was completed in his memory.

In his words, “Reflecting on the process of writing my script, I’ve come to believe firmly in the necessity to follow every lead. If you have even the slightest feeling that a certain book, article, movie, documentary, song, etc. might spur something in you, just simply read it, listen to is, watch it. It’s incredible the random unexpected areas inside of which one might find inspiration.”

Jake is remembered lovingly and missed dearly by his family and many, many friends.

Add Director Biography
Director Statement

Red Line is an immersive and heartbreaking true story that forces viewers into an uncomfortable confrontation with the "look the other way" attitude so many of us possess with respect to the homeless population. My vision is to dramatize this story within the neo-realist tradition of works such as American Honey, Wasp, The Florida Project, Heaven Knows What and Fruitvale Station.

Every resident of Los Angeles, or any big city for that matter, is familiar with the homelessness crisis. We all have our dinner party talking points in which we forcefully and eloquently articulate our own deep sense of sympathies for the plight of the homeless. The truth, however, whether we like to admit it or not, is that the ways in which most of us interact with the homeless seldom reflect those firmly held convictions of sadness for their situations. The undeniable reality is the way we act toward the homeless often runs opposite of our professed care for them. The truth is that most of us feel fear, apathy, disgust, and sometimes even hatred toward the homeless. There is, then, a highly erected wall of separation between our intellectual, abstract care for the plight of the homeless population in this city and the ways in which we actually interact with that population in our daily lives. This dichotomy is something far too few of us care to examine. Red Line does just that.

Rooted in my own personal experiences riding the LA Metro, the most intense of which serves as the picture’s climax, Red Line puts the forgettable faces, the people we all encounter in our daily lives but choose not to see, right there on the screen where we can’t deny their humanity. We cannot look the other way.