Short Film / In Production 2026

Don't Be Weird

Her daughter didn't disappear.
She just stopped pretending.

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Emma Josephson
Emma Josephson Writer / Director

"I've been trying to make this film for two years. I've landed on an exciting draft that feels just right. Now I want to do it right and raise all the money needed to make it happen without cutting corners."

Fund This Film
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Reach the goal. Start production. Hit $20K and we move straight into casting and pre-production this spring.
$20KGreenlight Goal
Fall '26Shoot Date
$20,000 raised Goal: $38,432
52% funded
Tax-Deductible

A lonely mother's nightmarish search for her missing daughter forces her to confront the fear and control that have driven them apart.

Written and Directed by Emma Josephson
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What Your Donation Unlocks

Every Dollar Has a Job

This is a 4-day shoot. Every day counts. Donate Any Amount
$25 Feed the Crew

Meals and snacks for one crew member for a full shoot day. A fed crew is a focused crew.

Donate $25
$350 A Day of Sound

One full day of professional audio rental. Sound design is half this film's psychological grip.

Donate $350
$700 Light the Film

Covers the G/E lighting package for two shoot days. The look of this film lives in its light.

Donate $700
$1,500 Put Us in the Forest

Covers forest location permits — the surreal centerpiece of the film's visual world.

Donate $1,500
The Film

What It Is

The Story

Hazel spirals into a surreal hallucination that her daughter Giana has disappeared. In reality, Giana is preparing to marry her girlfriend, Olivia. Hazel's mind has turned her own refusal to accept her daughter's queerness into an imagined loss. By the end, you realize Hazel was never the victim. She was the reason.

The Tone

A surreal psychological thriller. Cuckoo meets If I Had Legs I'd Kick You, with the identity depth of Moonlight. Disorienting cinematography and unsettling sound design put you inside the anxiety of never knowing how someone will react when that part of your identity is revealed.

What Happens Next

The Road to Production

Now
Fundraising

Hit $20K and we greenlight. Your donation is what moves this from script to screen.

Active Now
Next
Casting and Prep

Casting, locations, crew. The full creative team assembled and ready.

April to August 2026
Phase 03
We Shoot

Principal photography. Hazel's surreal descent captured on film.

Fall 2026
Phase 04
Post-Production

Edit, sound, score. The puzzle of Hazel's fractured reality assembled.

Winter 2026
Phase 05
Festivals

Queer and genre festivals. Academy Award-qualifying circuit. Donors notified first.

2027
The Director

Emma Josephson

Emma Josephson
Emma Josephson / Writer, Director

Emma Josephson is a writer, director, and commercial editor. Her work explores emotional truth through a surrealist lens, drawing from personal relationships to make films that feel lived-in and unsettling in equal measure.

Her films have screened at the Atlanta Film Festival, Dances With Films, Seattle Queer Film Festival, and Beyond Fest. Bury Your Fish premiered with Short of the Week in 2023. AFI DWW+ Finalist, 2025.

Atlanta Film Festival (Academy Award-Qualifying)
Dances With Films
Seattle Queer Film Festival
Beyond Fest
Tacoma Film Festival
Short of the Week (2023)
AFI DWW+ Finalist (2025)
The Team

Key Crew

EJ
Emma Josephson
Writer / Director
AG
Alison Joy-Gale
Producer
KW
Kelly Wilcox
Producer
SW
Sarah Whelden
Director of Photography
Fund the Film

This Only Happens If You Help

$20,000 is the greenlight. Every dollar donated moves us into casting, prep, and production. Fully tax-deductible.

Donate Now

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