Private Project

With Grace

Three years after the height of the pandemic and the death of Grace Ellen Cummings, wayward daughter Amy is home to host a memorial ceremony with her sister, Katelyn, and her father, William. After the guests leave, casual conversation gives way to the simmering resentment that the sisters have been carrying for one another -- and William reveals a family secret that has them both questioning everything they thought they understood.

  • Linda Hildonen
    Director
  • Linda Hildonen
    Writer
  • Colby Michaud
    Producer
  • Lisa Church
    Producer
  • Tom Howell
    Producer
  • Danielle Eaton
    Key Cast
    "Katelyn"
  • Jennifer Fox
    Key Cast
    "Amy"
  • Alan McLucas
    Key Cast
    "William"
  • PJ O'Hanlon
    Key Cast
    "Jake"
  • Project Type:
    Short
  • Runtime:
    20 minutes 52 seconds
  • Completion Date:
    January 31, 2025
  • Production Budget:
    1,000 USD
  • Country of Origin:
    United States, United States
  • Country of Filming:
    United States, United States
  • Language:
    English
  • Shooting Format:
    Digital
  • Aspect Ratio:
    2:0
  • Film Color:
    Color
  • First-time Filmmaker:
    No
  • Student Project:
    No
Director Biography - Linda Hildonen

Linda Hildonen is a writer and director out of Lisbon Falls, Maine. This is her second short film as a writer and director. Her first film, a short musical called "Queen of Hearts", was written as part of the Maine Film Association's first 72-hour Winter Filmmaking Challenge, where it took home "Best Music" and "Best Use of Prop." Linda's previous credits include "Once in a Lifetime," a podcast musical (radio-drama style) about two women who fall in love right before the lockdown orders during the pandemic, and "Keep Singing!", a showcase of short, original musicals which was staged in Yarmouth, Maine in August of 2023. Both projects, as well as "With Grace," were made with her creative partner, Colby Michaud.

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Director Statement

In the early days of the pandemic, I read a news story about a man whose long-term partner had suddenly gotten sick with Covid, and was taken to the hospital that he couldn’t visit, where she died. Her remains were not returned, for whatever logistical reason amid the chaos, and the man was left alone, with no closure, no ceremony, and no chance to say goodbye. It was as if she had just disappeared.

Reading that story, I think, is what first made the pandemic real for me. Living in a world of constant news cycles and seemingly endless devastation can make anyone feel a little jaded. Watching the pandemic unfold around me without any initial emotional response had left me feeling somehow less-than-human.

But I wept for this man. And then I wept for the world.

I carried his story with me for years. I suppose it was my own personal shorthand for the trauma of the pandemic in general, and it was forever heavy, forever painfully recent. It wasn’t until Colby and I began to work on this project that I thought of this man and his lost love, and I knew I had finally found a place to put that pain.

And so, that is how Grace Ellen Cummings came to be. And how she came to die.

But that’s not really what this film is about.

This film is about the people who keep on living in her absence. It’s about the silence left between them when the person they all loved to talk to best is gone, and the secrets that died with her, and the ones carried by those who remain.

As tends to happen, writing the story involved a great deal of looking inward, and backward-- to my own self, my own shame. To the dynamics of the family I was raised in, and my own personal values regarding truth and honesty. But if writing “With Grace” became an exploration of self, then directing it became an exercise in connection: Working with this incredible cast on a project so close to my own experience was a revelation-- a truly collaborative and intimate process in which I learned so much about every one of them, and so, too, did they learn of me. Deep conversations about the experiences and motivations of the characters-- detailed back stories and discussions of their values and philosophies-- not only brought out these rich, nuanced performances, but also fostered a rare bond between all of us who worked on the early stages of this film. This bond at once stood in sharp relief to the isolation of their on-screen counterparts and, indeed, was a relief from the hard work of faithfully portraying such anger and suffering.

“With Grace” may be a story of the devastating power of secrets, but the story of making it is all about the magic of honesty. I am forever in debt to all who participated in it, and to the man whose story first inspired me. And I am, as ever, humbly grateful to be part of the grand tradition of story, and music, and film. Art is our truest path to the connection that we all so deeply need: This is how we feel human again. This is, as ever, the place to put the pain.