poster smallselffilm.com smallselffilm@gmail.com imdb.com/title/tt6987486/ facebook.com/smallselffilm

SYNOPSIS: Comedy/drama about a recently divorced, cisgendered man who learns that he's pregnant. Over the course of a single evening, he struggles to both tell his friends and reconnect with his ex wife.

SPECS:

20 minutes English, color, 1080p produced in Minneapolis, Minnesota Summer 2017

Written and Directed by Peter Groynom Produced by Jade Patrick and Jack Norton Associate Produced by Kitty Norton

PRODUCTION HIGHLIGHTS: - Filmed in and around the Gamut art gallery in Minneapolis (www.gamutgallerympls.com/) as well as Band Box Diner, a classic, 1930s diner that was designated as a local landmark by the Minneapolis Heritage Preservation Commission in 2000.

- The film’s sound and original soundtrack were created and engineered at Slam Academy (www.slamacademy.com), a professional sound production and DJ school in Northeast Minneapolis.

- Small Self features the visual art and sculptures of Laura Bennett, John Foster, Hillary Greenstein, Barret Lee, Derek Meier, and Erin Nistler.

SMALL SELF CAST:

“Tom” - Christiaan Tarbox, better known as "Bacon", is a Minneapolis-based performance artist, as well as a veteran of the Minneapolis cable access scene. Tarbox has appeared in various commercials and short films, and is a co-creator, director, and writer of the Minneapolis cable access sketch comedy program "And Now It’s.”

“Lisa” - Sandra Struthers is an actor, improvisor, teacher, and musician who has performed at theaters including The Guthrie, Walnut Street, Mint, Actors Theater of

Louisville, and The Alabama Shakespeare Festival. She has also appeared in several short films and in various commercials and industrials. www.sandrastruthers.com

“Jonathan” - Nik Whitcomb is an actor born and raised in Omaha, NE where he won multiple awards for his performance in Caroline, or Change. Small Self marks the film debut for Nik, but he has been seen on theatrical stages across the Midwest and Off-Broadway in productions including Shrek the Musical and Little Nelly’s Naughty Noel. www.nikwhitcomb.com

“Rose” - Kendra Alaura is a model, stage, film, and commercial actress in the Twin Cities who has worked with production companies such as Token Media, Red

23 Filmworks, Tiny Eyes Pictures, Pixel Farm, TCA, and NoWare Media. She has appeared in music videos for Carnage the Executioner, DJ Ganzobean, and has

worked on stage the majority of her life.

SMALL SELF CAST (continued):

“Holly” - Sue Dunham is a Minneapolis-based actress, writer, and director who has appeared in productions with Smartmouth Comedy, Shadow Horse Theater, Degenerate Theater, Know Idea Productions, AKT Films, and Killing Joke Productions.

“Dr. Gold” - Ananda Bates is an actor and musician who has appeared in films (Uprising: Revolution From the Roots, The Art of War) as well as commercials and

theater throughout the Twin Cities. He has performed with a variety of bands, including Blue Dot Trance and Acoustic Roots.

painting by Derek Meier

PRODUCTION TEAM:

Writer/Director - Peter Groynom is a Twin Cities-based filmmaker, writer, and photographer. His work has appeared in festivals and galleries in New York, Portland, Denver, and Minneapolis. In addition to Small Self, he has done production work on feature films (Let’s Bow Our Heads and Segregate, Wendigosis,) written and produced several short films, and is a contributing writer on a sitcom pilot currently being shot in Minneapolis (Autumn 2017.)

Producer - Jade Patrick is a video director, producer, photographer, and visual art curator. She opened Gamut Gallery as the founding director in 2012, and shortly

thereafter found her passion for filmmaking while creating archival and promotional shorts. In 2016, she had her first short go viral, a Bernie Sanders promo video, with more

than 100k views on the first day. Currently she is focused on creating music videos, experimental films, and gallery operations. She lives in South Minneapolis with her

husband and twin sons.

Producer - Jack Norton is an avant-garde filmmaker (art house / horror) and critically acclaimed musician (vaudeville / jug band folk). In addition to his work in film, Jack is a successful musician and has toured with Norah Jones, Dave Van Ronk, Leon Redbone and the Squirrel Nut Zippers. In 2017, four original songs written and performed by Jack and Kitty Norton were featured in the Willem Dafoe film The Florida Project by director Sean Baker (Tangerine) which debuted at the 49th edition of Cannes Directors’ Fortnight as part of the Cannes Film Festival.

Associate Producer - Kitty Norton was born in Jamaica, the niece of reggae legend Bunny Wailer (of Bob Marley and the Wailers). She was a

session vocalist at Prince’s Paisley Park Studios in Minnesota. Ms. Norton has worked as a producer, director, composer, and cinematographer on a wide

range of commercial and corporate projects, and co-created an Emmy Award winning children series which aired on PBS Kids member

stations nationwide.

Writer/Director’s Notes:

“The challenge of any short narrative is to present a main character who has a predicament, and then explore how that predicament makes them change and make a choice that they will have to live with long after the ‘story’ of the piece is over.

With Small Self, I wanted to present a character who has a huge, unexplainable problem that immediately makes sense to an audience. Tom is pregnant, and the story of the film is how he processes what’s happened to him, and how it affects the people in his life.

Yes, the film is about a cis man who is pregnant, which could easily have led to jokes about weight gain and lactation coaches et al. But I’m more interested in exploring the concept from a semi-realistic angle: what would a modern, self-aware guy do if faced with this problem, this ’setback’? piece by John Foster

How would he tell his friends, how would he tell his ex wife, what would he do about it? What if his friends are all more successful than he is - would he come to view his predicament as a problem or an opportunity?

By establishing Tom as a visual artist who’s in a rut (professionally and artistically) it felt like there were a lot of rich themes to mine, for both pathos and character-driven laughs. My hope is that our film is both entertaining and explores these themes in a non- traditional way.”

- Peter Groynom

painting by Erin Nistler Small Self Cast:

Christiaan Tarbox - Tom Sandra Struthers - Lisa Nik Whitcomb - Jonathan Kendra Alaura - Rose Sue Dunham - Holly Ananda Bates - Dr. Gold Aaron Barck - Diner Worker Bill Hewitt - Diner Patron

painting by Hilary Greenstein

Small Self Crew:

Cinematographers - Nicholas Anderson and Caleb Timmerman Gaffer - Thomas VandenDolder Editor - Nicholas Anderson Assistant Editors - Richard Louprasong and Caleb Timmerman

Art Directors -Bethany Birnie and Jade Patrick Graphic Designer - Christiaan Tarbox Still Photographer - Bethany Birnie

Audio Production Lead - James Patrick Lead audio technician - Kyle Goodrich Foley Engineer - Charles Hansen Audio Technicians - Neil McArthur, Kody Klein, Samuel Paquette, Gustavo Villegas Original Score - Chuck Love and James Patrick

Featured Visual Artists - Laura Bennett, John Foster, Hillary Greenstein, Barret Lee, Derek Meier, Erin Nistler Production Assistants - Jordan Curtis and Isaac Frans Script Supervisor - Kitty Norton Assistant Director - Jade Patrick Associate Producer - Kitty Norton Producers - Jade Patrick and Jack Norton Writer/Director - Peter Groynom

PRODUCTION STILLS:

postcard

Small Self copyright 2017 Brizo Media Group