During the band Fated to Repeat’s first show back after the death of their songwriter, the newly promoted singer Mia ends the set after being heckled by a familiar audience member. Despite the urging of her band mates, she refuses to take the stage until she finds the one person she invited to the show, the father of her now deceased writing partner. Past and present collide as she searches for her guest and navigates the social fallout stemming from the loss of a beloved member within the local music scene.
The theme of loss is as universal as it is devastating. When no explanation is given, we are left to come to terms of the “why”, the reasons ultimately buried as deep as those we have lost. Fated to Repeat is about capturing that specific moment of learning to live again after losing someone. The act of mourning goes well beyond the initial act itself.
Through the act of musical performance, experimental narrative structures and a story inspired by true events, Fated to Repeat explores how music acts as a coping mechanism with trauma. By literalizing the first-person point of view of the effects of PTSD and Social Anxiety Disorder, we’ll be able to re-create the experience of trigger moments. This will allow us to also capture how music, the act of creation, and performance itself can re-train mental programming pushed off the rails by a traumatic act. The act of closure can come with the act of creation.
As a songwriter, music became the way I connected with the world after a series of events consumed the better part of my twenties. It wasn’t so much asking for help (Lord knows I probably should have), but it was asking to be understood. Music helped me make sense of what was at the time undiagnosed PTSD and Social Anxiety disorder.
Rather than being stuck re-living specific moments over and over again, I chose to manifest these feelings through song, which was the main reason I started my former band Dorean Lives (You can hear one of the most important songs exploring these ideals by listening to our song “The Sound of Her Voice” of the Album A Cold Fire from the One I Loved (2014) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i3bxh06rTqo.
Fated to Repeat is a film I hope can GIVE hope to those who have had trauma consume them. Fated to Repeat is a film of connection, a means of saying that YOU ARE NOT ALONE.
Do things in the world because you were loved. Let that connection you have be the motivator to do good in the world. Love begets love begets love… truly becoming an example of how the act of love is as close to immortality as we’ll ever need.
Go. Create. Live. Be excellent to each other (…and don’t doubt the influence of Bill & Ted).
We’re couldn’t be more excited to have you on board with us!
~Logan
-
Current Team
Producer
Director of Photography
Assistant Director
Costume Designer
Actress
Actress
Assistant Producer
Make Up
About This Team
Logan J. Freeman – Director/Co-Writer
Hailing from Birmingham, AL, writer/director Logan J. Freeman has created dozens of award-winning commercials, experimental shorts and music videos for the better part of a decade. Seasoned as a touring musician and lifelong story teller, Logan currently attends the M.F.A. Emerson College in Boston with the focus of Film Directing. Winner of the 2013 Spring Sidewalk Scramble for his debut film “Traces”, with his other shorts/music videos being featured and winning awards world-wide. Currently, Logan is the Outreach and Education Coordinator for the Sidwalk Film Festival.
Amy DePaola – Producer
Amy is a filmmaker, an Adjunct Professor of Producing at Emerson College in Boston, MA, and Founder of indieMEDIAtv, a digital hub supporting underrepresented independent filmmakers. She has produced several episodic web series and short films which have been recognized in national festivals. Her first feature, LAILA B., a narrative-cum-cinéma vérité film based on her discovery of boxing following a physical assault she survived in 2013, is currently in post-production.
Lindsay Ellinas – Associate Producer
Abijeet Achar – Director of Photography
Abijeet Achar is a multi-national cinematographer and director. His most recent work shot on location in India and France, “My Indian Rhapsody,” received recognition through the Graduate Deans Award at Emerson College where he recently completed his MFA in Media Arts. Abijeet currently lives in Los Angeles where he is a Production Intern for Partizan Films, a multi-award winning production studio founded by Michel Gondry
Sean Temple – Co-Writer/ 1st Assistant Camera
Sean Temple is a Screenwriter and Director based in Los Angeles. He believes cinema’s unique ability to tell character driven stories through image and sound enhances our capacity for social empathy. Sean is a working artist who recently finished his MFA in Media Arts at Emerson College. He has written and directed several short films that have screened at multiple film festivals and for the American Immigration Lawyers Association. Sean is currently in various stages of production on multiple short films, TV pilots, and feature films.
Will Stewart – Assistant Director
Amanda Mattes – Costumes/Wardrobe
Amanda Mattes received her M.F.A. in Performance Costume Design from the University of Edinburgh’s College of Art, and her B. A. with Honors in Theatrical Design from the University of Alabama at Birmingham. While in the UK, Amanda designed for the Royal Scottish Conservatory, as well as several productions in London and the Edinburgh Festival and Festival Fringe. Her work in television and film includes Armor construction and making for Game of Thrones (2012, Belfast, UK), Painting and Dye work on the BBC’s Atlantis (2013-2014, Wales, UK), Costume Dyeing and Breakdown for STAR’s Outlander (2014, Scotland, UK), and various costume production credits for Dr. Who(2013), World War Z (2011), etc.
Along with her work in the UK, Amanda has been a Resident Costume Designer at Shakespeare & Company, and worked at the Santa Fe Opera as a Costume Cutter, as well as the Barbara Matera, Ltd., Alabama Shakespeare Festival, the Alabama Ballet, and Romantasy’s Exquisite Corset Company.
Jean-Paul DiSciscio – Production Design
Somica Spratley – Make-Up/ Assistant to Production Coordinator
Cast:
Virginia Newcomb – Mia
Micah Rector – Jonesy
Breely Flowers – Carl
Andy Harris – Stan
Charlotte Rea – Jade
Fated to Repeat harnesses an original soundtrack, the music-scene energy of Birmingham, AL and authentic performances by actual musicians to re-recreate the experience of connecting with a song on stage.
Ian Hoppe – David