joshua's Mallory Story

Joshua's Mallory Story

Bruce Von Stiers

Miami University in Oxford, Ohio has this very cool film production course. In abbreviated form it's called Capstone Pictures. By the end of the course, students will have produced a film that is presented to both the university community and the world at large.

One of the recent films from Capstone Pictures is Rewriting Mallory. It is a short drama film dealing with loss.

Joshua is a young man trying to find a way to cope with the loss of his sister. His therapist suggests he write things down. He's not so sure that will make him feel better.

Joshua stops by a café and then a family comes in. There's a mom, a dad and three little kids. Joshua seems happy to observe the family. Then he starts writing in a journal about Mallory.

Mallory is not punctual and is almost late for her job at a law firm. She gets called into Mr. Holcomb's office, one of the senior partners of the firm. The meeting doesn't go well and then later she no longer is employed. And still later, a relationship implodes. And to add yet another layer to Mallory's bad day, she learns that she has a possible terminal health concern.

But as Joshua writes his story about Mallory, how much is fact and how much is fiction? He keeps writing sentences, scratching them out and writing something slightly different. These changes seem to alter the course of Mallory's story. Hence the title of the film, Rewriting Mallory. What Joshua writes is played out in various situations onscreen.

Joshua was played by Jonathan Erwin. Mallory was played by Tamara Sanow. This is the first IMDB credited film for both. Joshua's therapist was played by Lucy Borchers.

The server at the café was played by Zach Holt. Mallory's love interest was played by Bryson Schultz. Also appearing in the film in minor roles were Sam Ribbler and Zamani Munashe. Mr. Holcomb was played by Timothy J. Cox. He has many film credits including the short films After, Creatures of Habit and Sundays With Dad.

The screenplay was written by Malcolm Vanderwoude. His previous screenwriting credits include the short films Deep Return and A Single Moment.

The film was directed by Emerson Adams. Besides directing, she has produced and acted in a few films. Her production company, Pancake Pictures, co-produced the film with Capstone Pictures.

The director of photography was Vy Tran. The first assistant director was Makenzie Knore. She recently worked as a production staffer on Georgie & Mandy's First Marriage.

The producers for the film were Ryan Fleming and Becca Goetz with Sam Ribbler and David Sholle as executive producers.

The film is mostly a straight-forward drama. You can see the despair in Joshua before he sits down to write about his sister. And you can sympathize with Mallory in all of the things that happen to her in a single day. But the film throws in a couple of twists that I didn't see coming. And even though I liked the drama of the film, the twists are what made me really appreciate it.

There isn't a formal release date for Rewriting Mallory yet. It is currently being shown at various film festivals. The film has already been shown at the Chicago Indie Film Awards and was a nominee at the Venice Shorts film festival.

The film has an Instagram page at https://www.instagram.com/p/Crn2RweJFQ2/

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