Water Dog

He's just a regular guy. She's just a disembodied head.

Project type: Fiction Short
Project status: Production
Writer/Director: Christina Kelly Holmes
Producer: Roxanne Griffith
Cinematographer: Pip White
Production Designer: Esmé Cruz Jackson
 
Email: christinakholmes@gmail.com
 
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Logline

A disillusioned millennial man bumps into an old classmate and meets his new wife – a disembodied head. Questioning his sanity, the man brings his girlfriend to dinner with the couple.

Synopsis

In a shaggy dog costume, Guy drinks alone in a dive bar on Halloween. He is annoyed to find Dan, his misogynist old classmate from graduate school, has spotted him. Dan now lives above the bar and invites Guy to meet his wife Harriet. Once inside the sparsely furnished apartment, Guy has a hard time pinpointing where Harriet’s voice is emanating from, only to realize she’s a disembodied head. But everyone acts as if this is normal. Making his excuses to leave, Guy meets his girlfriend, also named Harriet, at a Halloween party. She chastises him for being late, and he relays running into Dan and meeting Harriet, leaving out the fact that she’s a floating head. The next day, Dan invites Guy over for dinner and Guy decides to bring his Harriet as an extra set of eyes. At dinner, the Harriets get along swimmingly. Dan asks the group why no one is saying anything about his Harriet; then Dan announces she is pregnant. The conversation turns to parenthood. Guy is further baffled: how is Dan going to be a father? How is Harriet going to have a baby? Afterward, Guy’s Harriet is clearly upset with his rude behavior at dinner. They walk home in silence as Guy ponders how Dan has been able to grow as a person and he – a theoretically enlightened man – hasn’t.

Meet the Filmmakers

Christina Kelly Holmes – Writer/Director
Christina Kelly Holmes is a 2020 graduate of the screenwriting program at The American Film Institute Conservatory. She is the recipient of both the 2020 Russo Brothers’ AGBO/AFI Development Grant, and the 2021 AFI Writers’ Room Ready Award. Her identity as a first-generation Romanian and mixed-race woman, and her experiences as a third-culture kid, influence her storytelling. Christina was born in New Jersey, raised in London, and received a bachelor’s degree in sociology from Colorado College. After working as a strategist for various startups in the tech industry and in publishing, she redirected her career toward writing. She was most recently the Writers Assistant on Amazon’s Citadel.

Roxanne Griffith – Producer
Of Iranian-Canadian origin, Roxanne graduated from the American Film Institute Conservatory in 2020 with an MFA in producing. Since graduating, Roxanne has produced multiple award-winning short films, including Spaceship, Why Don’t You Like Me?, and How to Cry on Command. Roxanne also worked as an Associate Producer on Blippi, a children’s YouTube channel with over 18 million subscribers. Roxanne is currently producing a vertical web series and is in development and pre-production on multiple projects.

Pip White – Cinematographer
Pip White is a Cinematographer and Photographer. She attended the prestigious Central Saint Martins where she received a Bachelor of Arts in Design. Pip then went on to receive her Masters of Fine Arts at the American Film Institute where she was awarded the PIGOTT/ BAFTA Scholarship for Cinematography. Over the past year, Pip has lensed two feature films including the independent Sci-Fi Thriller Parallel starring Danielle Deadwyler (Till, Station Eleven, Harder They Fall) and Aldis Hodge (The Invisible Man), directed by Kourosh Ahari.

Esmé Cruz Jackson – Production Designer
Esmé Cruz Jackson is dual-card member of the ADG Local 800. She works as both a Set Designer and Assistant Art Director. She has spent 3 years traveling through space and time on For All Mankind, but is happy to be earthbound with her recent work on Physical S3. In her spare time Esmé is still in production designing shorts and music videos. Her recent short Spaceship was nominated for a Student Academy Award, while Hallelujah premiered at Sundance. Esmé graduated from the American Film Institute with an MFA in Production Design.

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Contact

For inquiries, please contact fiscalsponsorship@filmindependent.org.