Help Alison and Beth Make Two Female-Driven Short Films

Please join us in making Upcycled and Composting, two short films that are called NEVER HIKE ALONE when combined. They make up our upcoming MFA thesis project at the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland (RCS)!

By making these short films under the auspices of the RCS, routinely ranked in the top 10 in the world for performing arts education, we have a head start on the quality of instruction and collaborators we’ll be able to find. We plan to use that quality to springboard our project, and to take it as far as it can possibly go.

We’ll be submitting our films to organizations like The Student Academy Awards, the short film corner at the Cannes Film Festival, the International Short Film category at Sundance, and many, many more. We’re taking this project very seriously, and we’ll treat any donations of time and money from you, our community, extremely seriously as well.

Thank you so much for your time and consideration - we can’t wait to make and share this story with you! Please share this GoFundMe and keep an eye on this page for updates!

Thank you, thank you, thank you!

Alison Kertz and Beth Gallagher

ABOUT THE FILMS

The focus of the films, both through the storytelling and the production process, is what women can do to not just to be equal in this world, but to be safe in it.

Regarding Equality: Even for independent films, a staggeringly small percentage of writers, executive producers, and producers are women. We are taking on this project as one very small step toward closing a gap that persists year after year, and that ultimately affects the foundation of the entertainment landscape.

Regarding Safety: Women are told to do a lot of things in order to keep themselves safe:

Oof. That’s a lot and that’s just the tip of the iceberg. The frame through which we see our safety – like our entertainment – is mostly one told by men, and puts accountability for being harmed on the victims of violence. In our project, one woman turns those tables.

Set and filmed on Scotland’s West Highland Way, NEVER HIKE ALONE (made up of the two short films Upcycled and Composting) will be a directorial debut for Alison and Beth, as well as a screenwriting debut for Alison. Each of us will be playing the lead in one film, and directing each other in the other.

The story centers around Liz’s (played by Beth) true crime podcast, where she investigates and reports on women who have gone missing while hiking alone. When her own brother, Kit, goes to hike the West Highland Way ahead of her and falls out of touch, she knows she has to find him herself. She records her investigation and in searching for Kit, she meets an avid listener, Judith (played by Alison), who believes in the mission of the podcast. Judith wants to help, but Liz and Judith uncover some troubling information about Kit, and have to decide what to do.

WHY GOFUNDME?

Simply put, Beth and Alison are going to be students again. That means paying international tuition fees and all the living costs associated with moving abroad for the length of the term! Because of those costs, we don’t have the funds available to us to compensate people the way they deserve to be compensated. When Alison was writing these screenplays, she kept producibility in mind. That means keeping things as inexpensive as possible, without compromising the storytelling. That said, we’re going to need to shoot for six days, and we intend to pay our crew a professional rate. A lot of effort and collaboration goes into making a movie. Below you can find the layout for the funds we’re hoping to raise, and how your contribution will help!

WHERE IS THE MONEY GOING?

WHAT ELSE?