Country: USA
Year: 2024
Duration: 98'
The army veteran Merit (played by Sonequa Martin-Green) maintains a close friendship with Zoe (Natalie Morales), her comrade-in-arms. Zoe, in fact, lost her life in the war, and despite the help of her therapist (Morgan Freeman) and her mother (Gloria Reuben), Merit increasingly isolates herself from reality. At least until her gruff grandfather (Ed Harris), who lives sequestered in the family lake house, begins to need help..
Biography
film director
Kyle Hausmann-Stokes
(Wisconsin, USA) born and raised in a small town in Wisconsin, enlisted in the U.S. Army just a month before 9/11, served five years as a paratrooper and is a recipient of the Bronze Star. He used his G.I. Bill to graduate from the USC School of Cinematic Arts, then dedicated the next decade of his career creating social impact content for the U.S. Department of Veteran Affairs as well as commercials for brands like Google, UPS and IBM. He is the co-founder of Veterans in Media & Entertainment, the leading nonprofit organization for veterans in the entertainment industry, and a founding member of Everytown for Gun Safety’s Veteran Advisory Counsel. In 2024 he directed the dark comedy My Dead Friend Zone.
FILMOGRAFIA
Kapisa (cm, coregia/co-director Paul Sage, 2009), Sam (cm, 2009), Ellen (cm, 2010), It Matters (cm, 2014), Wrongful Termination (cm, 2015), Meals Ready to Eat (6 ep, serie tv, 2017), Veterans for Gun Reform PSA (cm, 2018), Yanqui (mm, 2024), My Dead Friend Zone (2024).
Declaration
film director
“This film is inspired by my personal journey with PTSD and survivor’s guilt after returning from war. It’s about how my survivor’s guilt became my only friend, and forbid me from talking about it…especially in talk therapy. That is until a few Vietnam veterans—older guys at my local VA, also my grandfather—showed me the cost that comes with living in the past. This film is for them, for the battle buddies I lost, and for the thousands of veterans, spouses and family members I’ve met along the way. Through telling their stories...I finally found courage to tell my own.”
Cast
& Credits
DIRECTOR: Kyle Hausmann-Stokes. SCREENPLAY: Kyle Hausmann-Stokes, AJ Bermudez. CINEMATOGRAPHY: Matt Sakatani Roe. EDITING: Ali Greer. PRODUCTION DESIGN: Whit Vogel. COSTUME DESIGN: Dionne Barens. MUSIC: Dan Romer. SOUND: Rob Marshall. CAST: Sonewua Martin-Green, Natalie Morales, Ed Harris, Morgan Freeman, Utkarsh Ambudkar, Gloria Reuben. PRODUCERS: Paul Scanlan, Kyle Hausmann-Stokes, Terri Lubaroff, Ray Maiello, Mike Field, Richard Silverman, Robert Paschall Jr. PRODUCTION: Legion M, Radiant Media Studios, ReCre8 Entertainment.
CONTACT: Universal Pictures International www.nbcuniversal.com
