Experiencing Interruptions?

Projectionist

An isolated movie theater projectionist named Terance deals homemade psychedelics on a mission to change the collective conscience and wake up the world.

Terance is convinced his homemade LSD will shake us from our apathetic daze. Refusing payment, he has only one condition, to “tell the right people.” But when the wrong crowd catches on and his underground crusade begins to unravel, Terance must make a choice—succumb, or escalate his one-man enlightenment project into something far more explosive.

  • Pat McCoy
    Director
  • Nicolas Alexandre
    Director
  • Pat McCoy
    Writer
  • Nicolas Alexandre
    Writer
  • Kai Dickson
    Cinematographer
  • Pat McCoy
    Producer
  • Nicolas Alexandre
    Producer
  • David G. Carrascal
    Producer
  • Steven McCoy
    Producer
  • Brent Michal
    Key Cast
    "Terance"
  • Nicolas Alexandre
    Key Cast
    "The Suit"
  • Piper Verbrick
    Key Cast
    "Alice"
  • Project Type:
    Short
  • Genres:
    Drama, Thriller
  • Runtime:
    13 minutes 29 seconds
  • Completion Date:
    January 1, 2026
  • Production Budget:
    25,000 USD
  • Country of Origin:
    United States
  • Country of Filming:
    United States
  • Language:
    English
  • Shooting Format:
    Expired 35mm
  • Aspect Ratio:
    1.33:1
  • Film Color:
    Color
  • First-time Filmmaker:
    Yes
  • Student Project:
    No
  • Digital Cinema Package:
    Unavailable
  • Dances With Films
    Los Angeles
    United States
    June 23, 2026
    World Premiere
    Official Selection
Director Biography - Pat McCoy, Nicolas Alexandre

Pat McCoy and Nicolas Alexandre have worked together since meeting on New York’s Upper West Side in 2011, building a partnership grounded in a shared passion for American New Wave cinema. With backgrounds that include NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts, cross-country artistic endeavors, acting, music, and multidisciplinary storytelling, they see filmmaking as a tactile, handmade process. Drawn to contained spaces and moral tension, they treat cinema as an immersive medium that questions perception and lingers in ambiguity. Projectionist marks their directorial debut, both as individuals and as a duo.

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Director Statement

Conceived in 2022, Projectionist follows a young American man named Terance who, cut off from meaningful connection, convinces himself that radical action is not only justified, it’s necessary. At its core, the film is about isolation, belief, and the dangerous comfort of certainty. Growing out of the sense that reality itself had started to fracture. People retreating inward, many of us drifting between denial and paralysis. With all that in mind, we set out to explore how resentment hardens and personal grievances can erode into a self-righteous crusade.

In the filmmaking, we prioritized a tactile process that favored restraint and psychological depth over spectacle. In order to achieve this, we shot on expired 35mm film. The choice to use this format was daunting, but also obvious. To shoot on anything else felt like a betrayal of the story we wanted to tell and of the character we had come to know. Little did we realize that this one thing would ripple outward in such profound ways. From the quality of the visuals to the engagement of our cast and crew, even going as far as to inform the story itself, our decision to use expired 35mm film had the greatest impact.

Rooted in the community where the film was made, production took place overnight at the historic Plaza Theatre in Atlanta, an independent cinema that serves as the cultural anchor for the city’s small but mighty film scene. Rather than recreating this world, we worked within it. Real-life details shaped the character and rhythms of the film, lending onscreen texture from lived experience rather than fabrication. By embedding ourselves within the rituals of the Plaza, we hoped to tell an authentic story inseparable from the people and place at its center.

Above all, this is the product of real human hands. One that could not exist otherwise.

Intended as a reflection of our time, Projectionist asks a simple question—where do we draw the line? When our worst fears become manifest, will we betray our greatest convictions? Or will we risk everything to confront those who cross it, trading the comfort of certainty for a fate unknown?

In the end, the choice is not hypothetical, it’s inevitable. And only time will tell.