STORY
Mary is a teenage girl living in Nazareth in the year Zero (but speaking in modern dialogue). She’s a normal teen: horny. But when Mary gets knocked up by a hot, married shepherd, and might get STONED to death for adultery, she and her gay best friend Joseph hatch a plan to save their lives in this cuckoo patriarchal town.
They’ll convince everybody that God made Mary pregnant --
with the new Messiah.
TONAL REFERENCES
GENRE
Comedy
Satire
Epic Parody
Coming-of-Age
Life of Brian (1979)
The Little Hours (2017)
Juno (2007)
TONE
Raunchy
Rebellious
Irreverent
Charming
Outrageous
Kitschy
Anachronistic
Thought-Provoking
VISUAL REFERENCES
We will be pulling inspiration from the grandiose visual style of classic epic films. Picture sweeping landscapes, panoramic wides, intense gazes, lone figures in the desert.
Pairing this ultra-serious and traditional cinematic language with our script, a comedy written in crass modern dialogue, will create an unexpected tonal contrast that makes the humor hit even harder, and brings the absurdity of the film to the next level.
The Production Design will also add to the absurd and satirical tone. While we will base our set on a period-accurate biblical town, we then plan to accentuate it with over-the-top, parodical design elements and gags (example: Mary‘s cave looking like the Flintstones’ house) so that the humor is also visually apparent.
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DONATIONS
ARE
TAX-DEDUCTIBLE!
HELP US GIVE BIRTH
TO THIS FILM:
HELP US GIVE BIRTH
TO THIS FILM:
Make sure you have selected AFI THESIS FILM 2420 - TEEN MARY
in the drop down menu on the donation site.
Make sure you have selected AFI THESIS FILM 2420 - TEEN MARY
in the drop down menu on the donation site.
IN-KIND DONATIONS:
IN-KIND DONATIONS:
Care to donate but don’t have the $hekels? Want to help us make a better film than our school’s budget cap allows?
Consider an In-Kind donation!
This covers everything from Costco snacks for feeding the crew, to a steadicam operator’s services if that’s your skillset!
In-Kind Donations have
In-Kind donations
do NOT count against our budget cap,
With enough In-Kind donations, we can make a $100,000 movie for $50,000.
This added production value is a HUGE bonus for our film,
and greatly appreciated by the filmmakers.
In-Kind donations are still TAX-DEDUCTIBLE!
If you offer us Costco food, keeping the receipt and filling out our In-Kind Donation form will make your accountant smile.
If you offer services, the amount you’d typically charge for those services is fully deductible.*
*WE ARE NOT ACCOUNTANTS THOUGH, so please double check that this deduction applies to your situation!
If you’re interested in making an In-Kind Donation to Teen Mary, please reach out to our producers and they’ll get you squared away!
Bridger Zadina:
Hector Martinez:
GREETINGS FROM OUR HUMBLE TEAM...
DIRECTOR / WRITER
Ali Rosenthal
Ali Rosenthal was born in New York City, to a Jewish dad and a Christian mom. They neither baptized nor bat mitzvahed her, and now she is very confused. She has experience directing five narrative short films, social media ads for Bark Box (a dog toy company) and Meet Cute (a Rom-Com podcast producer), and music videos (Pan Arcadia’s “THE AIRPLANE SONG”). Ali also loves developing projects and worked in development at Lyrical Media, where she helped produce the film HOW TO BLOW UP A PIPELINE. She’s loved honing her craft at the AFI Conservatory, where director Allan Arkush said she has gotten “very confident with where to put the camera.” Score!!
When she was younger she had dreams she was the Virgin Mary.
PRODUCER
Bridger Philip Zadina
Bridger was born on a llama farm in the heartland of Evangelical Wisconsin, and his Youth Group Pastor was very worried for him when the land of Sodom and Gomorrah beckoned. In 2006, a 12-year old Bridger and his mother Marcy packed up and headed out to Los Angeles to pursue Bridger’s childhood acting career. Since then, he’s starred in enough questionable content to make that Pastor blush. Now in his final year as a Producing Fellow at the American Film Institute, Bridger hopes to continue making films that push boundaries, bring people together with a good laugh, make his Monty Python-loving father proud, and keep his Pastor blushing.
PRODUCER
Hector Martinez
Hector Martinez is a story-centered producer. In building relationships with creatives and crews, he is trusted as a calm and decisive leader on set, Thanks to years of Catholic guilt! Hector's background is creating content for many notable brands for over ten years, such as Virgin Voyages, Carnival Corp., Tim Horton's, Disney, and St. Jude Children's Hospital. His short film ROAM was featured in the South Florida PBS filmmaker series, which resulted in a regional Emmy® nomination for Directing. While his confessions might not make it to the big screen, the next time you see him on set, remember that he's producing his way to redemption, one film at a time!
CINEMATOGRAPHER
Jodi Savitz
JODI SAVITZ is a graduate of Northwestern University, with a Bachelor of Arts in Theatre and Gender Studies and also studied filmmaking at the Universidad Nacional de las Artes in Buenos Aires, Argentina. Based in NYC, Savitz worked as a professional cinematographer and director, capturing both narrative and verité stories with political, religious, and LGBTQ themes. Her first feature film, GIRL ON GIRL (2016) received viral attention - with over 500,000 Facebook followers - for its representation of the LGBTQ community and feminine lesbian identity. In 2019, Savitz spoke at SXSW and NAB on Panasonic's panel on socially conscious filmmaking.
PRODUCTION DESIGNER
Abbie Vance
Abbie Vance has 10 years of experience in Art Departments for film and television. Her passion for all aspects of visual storytelling has taken her into the roles of Production Designer, Art Director, Property Master, and more. A graduate of the American Film Institute Conservatory with an MFA in Production Design (class of 2022), her film credits include Art Director for THE WOLF OF SNOW HOLLOW (2020) and Propmaster for NINE DAYS (2021). Her commercial Production Design clients include Entrata and Team Liquid, and her speculative work includes concepts for Steven Soderberg’s THE KNICK and Disney’s JOHN CARTER. Abbie loves big stories that inspire big feelings, and learning new things as often as possible.
EDITOR
Carter Huang
Weixiang "Carter" Huang, hailing from Xiamen, China, is a graduate of Michigan State University's Media & Information program. Carter's journey with editing began in middle school, where he continuously utilized his resources and knowledge to create, realizing the emotive power of editing. He has been involved in the editing and sound design of over 30 short films, documentaries, commercials, and mini-series. At the same time, he is passionate about cultures and history. During his college years, he minored in Japanese literature. Currently, he is editing a short film from Bangladesh. Now, as an editor, 2D compositor, and sound designer, he seeks to explore comedy editing techniques and inspire emotions through a harmonious blend of sound and visuals.
The American Film Institute is a nonprofit organization with a mandate to champion the moving image as an art form.
The thesis film is the crowning achievement of a Fellow’s two-year tenure at the AFI Conservatory and showcases the mastery of filmmaking achieved by Fellows. Thesis production is a rigorous nine-month collaborative process that culminates in the production of a 20-minute film.
The Conservatory, which counts Patty Jenkins, Ari Aster, Affonso Gonçalves, Susannah Grant, Matthew Libatique, David Lynch, Melina Matsoukas, and Rachel Morrison among its Alumni, is ranked the #1 film school in America.
