INTOXICATED RAIN
INTOXICATED RAIN
by: Miles ONeil
by: Miles ONeil
FILM SYNOPSIS
Along the Western shores of Lake Michigan, just north of Milwaukee, lies the small town of Port Washington, Wisconsin where two old fishermen recover the curious isolated remains of a human face.
Jaden Sobczak, a young man in his early 20’s of mixed African-American and Caucasian descent, has moved back in with his grandparents Ron and Liz Sobczak in Port Washington after becoming increasingly distanced from his mother Stacy, Ron and Liz’s daughter, whose struggles with drug addiction and unhealed trauma have left her bitter and unstable.
Having attended school in this small town, Jaden is all too familiar with a climate of racial ignorance ranging from a racial slur being written on his locker to ongoing encounters, including a young woman who works with him at a local restaurant who expresses romantic interest in him then clumsily points out that she likes that he is black but that he doesn't "act" black, not understanding that Jaden finds this infuriating and insulting.
Jaden, Ron, and Liz manage their feelings of fear and hopelessness in their own avoidant ways. Ron retires to his basement to drink alone while Liz hosts friends for game nights, keeping up appearances. Jaden keeps busy outside their home, working a kitchen job while attempting to figure out how he fits into small town life and the bigger world. Along the way he encounters the bully from his school days, another schoolmate who has become a clown of a police officer and a former teacher who recalls a tone-deaf instance of race reversal. A point of redemption is the kinship he finds in a moped gang called “The Cranks.”
Jaden experiences flashbacks of pivotal encounters and visions of a black cat while growing more confident in who he is and how he interacts with others in his life.
Liz sends Jaden to visit his mom Stacy in Milwaukee under the guise of having him take Ron’s cracked boat propeller to Stacy’s neighbor Glover, a.k.a. Tin Man, who runs a cash-only welding business out of his garage. While there, Jaden has a cold, heated exchange with his mom Stacy but also encounters her neighbor Hazel, a young African-American woman who he has feelings for. Hazel had been living with her grandmother who recently passed away and is in the process of moving out without knowing where she’s moving to.
As Jaden finds an emergence of self-awareness, his relationships with those around him tilt toward the direction of healing and forgiveness, all while the mystery of the disembodied face in the lake persists. We see how the courage of one person to shed outwardly defensive layers can inspire paradigm shifts in the positive interconnectedness of those around him.
FILMMAKER BIO
FILM CATEGEORY
FILM BLOCK # - DAY, VENUE, TIME OF FILM SCREENING
WRITERS:
Nikita Bleu
PRODUCERS:
Maureen McCourt Boylan, Tom Didier, Tate Bunker
KEY CAST:
Mack Heath, Charlisa Anderson, Grover McCants, Candice Rose, Dominique Reeder
OTHER:
N/A
Along the Western shores of Lake Michigan, just north of Milwaukee, lies the small town of Port Washington, Wisconsin where two old fishermen recover the curious isolated remains of a human face.
Jaden Sobczak, a young man in his early 20’s of mixed African-American and Caucasian descent, has moved back in with his grandparents Ron and Liz Sobczak in Port Washington after becoming increasingly distanced from his mother Stacy, Ron and Liz’s daughter, whose struggles with drug addiction and unhealed trauma have left her bitter and unstable.
Having attended school in this small town, Jaden is all too familiar with a climate of racial ignorance ranging from a racial slur being written on his locker to ongoing encounters, including a young woman who works with him at a local restaurant who expresses romantic interest in him then clumsily points out that she likes that he is black but that he doesn't "act" black, not understanding that Jaden finds this infuriating and insulting.
Jaden, Ron, and Liz manage their feelings of fear and hopelessness in their own avoidant ways. Ron retires to his basement to drink alone while Liz hosts friends for game nights, keeping up appearances. Jaden keeps busy outside their home, working a kitchen job while attempting to figure out how he fits into small town life and the bigger world. Along the way he encounters the bully from his school days, another schoolmate who has become a clown of a police officer and a former teacher who recalls a tone-deaf instance of race reversal. A point of redemption is the kinship he finds in a moped gang called “The Cranks.”
Jaden experiences flashbacks of pivotal encounters and visions of a black cat while growing more confident in who he is and how he interacts with others in his life.
Liz sends Jaden to visit his mom Stacy in Milwaukee under the guise of having him take Ron’s cracked boat propeller to Stacy’s neighbor Glover, a.k.a. Tin Man, who runs a cash-only welding business out of his garage. While there, Jaden has a cold, heated exchange with his mom Stacy but also encounters her neighbor Hazel, a young African-American woman who he has feelings for. Hazel had been living with her grandmother who recently passed away and is in the process of moving out without knowing where she’s moving to.
As Jaden finds an emergence of self-awareness, his relationships with those around him tilt toward the direction of healing and forgiveness, all while the mystery of the disembodied face in the lake persists. We see how the courage of one person to shed outwardly defensive layers can inspire paradigm shifts in the positive interconnectedness of those around him.
FILMMAKER BIO
FILM CATEGEORY
FILM BLOCK # - DAY, VENUE, TIME OF FILM SCREENING
WRITERS:
Nikita Bleu
PRODUCERS:
Maureen McCourt Boylan, Tom Didier, Tate Bunker
KEY CAST:
Mack Heath, Charlisa Anderson, Grover McCants, Candice Rose, Dominique Reeder
OTHER:
N/A
