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Logline

A young man’s subconscious takes a guess at how his mother might react to his deepest and darkest secret. But when he finally finds the courage to tell her, he’s forced to keep on guessing or search for the answer within.

Synopsis

Cloud Illusions introduces us to a young man who struggles to find the courage and the words to tell his family that he’s gay. He decides to confess first to the person he trusts the most, his mother, though he speculates just how she’ll react to the news. Different scenarios run through his head of how the anticipated exchange will go. One is pleasant while another is frightening. But the actual reaction, he finds, is no reaction at all.

All of those years, lost in his mind, led him only to find his mother lost in her own mind. As she lies in silence in the late stages of Alzheimer’s, he comes to her bedside and tells her everything that he’s been feeling. Although he’s left to speculate her reaction indefinitely, their internal connection gives him just enough comfort to move forward into the next chapter of life.

Meet the Filmmakers

Casey Baker — Director/Writer/Producer
Casey’s first feature screenplay, CLOUD ILLUSIONS, is an autobiographical story about a son who privately struggles with his sexuality and relocates to his rural hometown in upstate New York when his mother is diagnosed with early onset Alzheimer’s. The script won best LGBTQ Screenplay at the 2023 Big Apple Film Festival. Casey’s script, THE CABIN, was a quarter-finalist at the 2023 Nashville Film Festival. He has three other feature films in development including CLICK, a thriller directed by Haylie Duff, HUNCH, a sci-fi romance directed by Nicos Beatty, and CHELSEA, a biopic about transgender military private, Chelsea Manning, which Casey wrote as a courtroom drama under the guidance of his mentors, John Collee and Fred Schepisi.

Andrew Carlberg — Producer
In 2013, Andrew was named one of “Hollywood’s New Leaders” by Variety alongside Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Mindy Kaling, and Andy Samberg. Since then, Andrew moved on to become an Academy award and Emmy Award winning film, television, new media, Broadway, and Los Angeles stage producer. Andrew’s extensive credits include, but aren’t limited to, SOME GIRL(S), starring Adam Brody and Kristen Bell, which premiered at the 2013 SXSW Film Festival; SUN DOGS, which was the feature directorial debut of actress Jennifer Morrison (Netflix 2018); THE BLAZING WORLD (short and feature) which was an Official Sundance Selection; THE DRAMATICS starring Kat Foster, Pablo Schreiber and Sean Astin; DIRTY WEEKEND starring Matthew Broderick and Alice Eve; SISTER OF THE GROOM, starring Alicia Silverstone and Tom Everett Scott and released by Saban Films; and the HBOMax drama THE FALLOUT starring Jenna Ortega which premiered at the SXSW Film Festival and won the Grand Jury and Audience Award. Notably, Andrew was the producer of SKIN, which won the 2019 Academy Award for Live Action Short Film. Andrew has sold projects to HBO, Netflix, CBS, DirecTV, and more.

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Contact

For inquiries, please contact fiscalsponsorship@filmindependent.org.