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Logline

Following her grandmother’s death, a young woman journeys to the Blue Ridge Mountains with the man her Nana loved late in life to honor her memory.

Synopsis

Gone Fishin’ is a quiet, intergenerational story set in the Blue Ridge Mountains. After her Nana, Cleo, passes away, Morgan accompanies Cleo’s late-in-life love, Walter, on a road trip to scatter her ashes. What begins as a simple act of closure becomes an unfolding of memory, grief, and unlikely kinship. Through tender silences, slow-dancing dreams, and stories left untold, Morgan begins to reframe her understanding of love, family, intimacy, and the ways it arrives, even if sometimes it feels too late.

We currently have a budget of $50k and have secured $35k through our grant from the Netflix and NALIP Directing Incubator Program and are aiming to close our $15k funding gap in time for our shoot in November 2025.
 

Meet the Filmmakers

Natalie Jasmine Harris — Writer/Director
Natalie Jasmine Harris is an award-winning Black queer filmmaker from Maryland whose work is rooted in coming-of-age experiences, showcasing Black joy, and imagining pathways to liberation for marginalized communities. Her filmmaking spans narrative, documentary, and commercial work. Natalie’s latest short film, Grace, had its world premiere at the 2024 Sundance Film Festival and has since screened at dozens of festivals, including Palm Springs ShortFest, BlackStar, and Torino Film Festival (Turin, Italy). In 2025, the film was awarded a Vimeo Staff Pick and acquired to stream on The Criterion Channel. Her NYU thesis film, Pure, won the 2020 Directors Guild of America’s Student Film Award and was acquired by HBOMax. She is currently developing a feature adaptation with support from SFFILM, Outfest, and The Gotham. Natalie has directed commercial and documentary work for Hyundai, TIME, YouTube, and Breakwater Studios. She is currently a Sundance Ignite Fellow and has participated in artist programs with Outfest, PBS, Film at Lincoln Center, GLAAD, and more.

Yoko Kohmoto — Producer
Yoko Kohmoto is an eldest child of immigrants, a Leo, and a producer-writer based in NYC. Her producing work has been showcased in Tribeca Film Festival, Vimeo Staff Pick, Frameline, and CAAMFest, among others. Her priorities as a producer are to build community, ensure safety, and uplift marginalized voices. In 2024, she started an initiative to create spaces for women and nonbinary artists of color in film. She holds an MFA from Columbia University and a Bachelor’s from Northwestern University and currently works as a consultant for The Gotham Film & Media Institute.

Ryan Arrington — Producer
Ryan Arrington is a North Carolina-based producer with a decade of experience spanning animation, live-action, games, comics, TV, and music videos. He’s overseen 100+ projects from concept to delivery, consistently delivering on time, under budget, and above expectations. In addition to producing, he has worked across roles from IT to line producer to various crew roles on live-action sets, giving him a deep understanding of all sides of production. He’s passionate about art, people, and making things happen.

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Contact

For inquiries, please contact fiscalsponsorship@filmindependent.org.