A UCT graduation film: In an attempt to find meaning in her world and come to terms with the loss of her father, a woman builds a machine that she believes can communicate across the cosmos.
Under The Static
The film stars Carissa Cupido and the legendary South African actress, Jana Cilliers.
Short synopsis
After the sudden passing of her father, a young woman decides to continue his work on a mysterious sonic machine he invented. Her former life falls away as she becomes obsessed with an indistinct voice she hears under the static of the machine. Believing this voice is a message from the cosmos, she relies on this voice for ultimate closure over her father’s death. Her pragmatic mother becomes increasingly more concerned and their relationship threatens to fall apart.
Why is this film important?
At the heart of the story of Under The Static is the universal search for meaning, an issue that connects us all across race, gender and creed. As The Daughter, a woman in her early twenties, grapples with this issue she is forced to embark on a journey of coming of age. The film explores these issues while also analyzing the complex and often fraught relationship between a mother and daughter, as their shared mourning drives them farther apart.
As South African filmmakers we feel this film is important because it centers around a young woman of colour who is real and relatable. Our protagonist is a strong and deeply complex woman of colour and we want her to disrupt the conventions of racial representation.
The Daughter in her bedroom
Why we need YOU to join the team
We have poured every ounce of our blood, sweat, passion and creativity into this film and we don’t want the journey to end here.
Where your money will go
We need your contribution to Under The Static in order to get the film a professional sound mix as well as help us get the film to as many film festivals as humanly possible! It’s so important to us that the film reaches a wide audience but a lot of film festival entries are in dollars and euros, so we’re rattling our tin can!
Milestones
Tipping Point (R 5 000):
These funds will be solely devoted to submitting the film to as many international film festivals as possible. We have a ten month festival plan as many of the festivals we would like to submit to were accepting submissions whilst we were only in the production phase.
Dream Funding Goal (R 10 000):
We will use our Dream Funds to attain a professional-level sound mix, at a very reduced rate (Favors, favors, favors!).
No matter how big or small your contribution, it will make a difference.
The Under The Static team are a group of third-year UCT students who have poured everything we have into this film and we need your help to get it to the finishing line!
Director – Devon Delmar
Producer/Production Designer – Amy Rinquest
Director of Photography – Luan Kleingeld
Sound designer – Dale Hendricks
Editor – Jesse Brown