Binge
Set at a queer bachelorette party, our protagonist Shea attempts to reignite old friendships while struggling to suppress her binge eating disorder. In this story, our LGBTQ+ characters navigate complicated relationships with wit, style--and, yes, a little bit of kissing 😘
Logline
Binge is a dark comedy that embraces queer relationships, a binge eating disorder, karaoke, a nosy made of honor, and a vulva-themed cake. Who knows where the night will lead?
Synopsis
Binge is a dark comedy that follows Shea as she attends her ex-girlfriend's bachelorette party while struggling to keep her binge eating disorder under control. Shea is determined to jump back into her old social circle and rekindle her friendship with her ex, Ava.
Trying to play it cool, Shea suppresses her anxiety and refuses to eat anything throughout the party. While other guests sing karaoke and enjoy themselves, all Shea can think about is eating. Or rather, not eating. Counting how many calories she’s had, how many she’s burned. And how beautiful everyone else seems. Why does everyone look skinny but her?
Her stress builds until she implodes and demolishes the star of the party—a giant cake decorated like a giant. pink. vulva.
Finally Ava confronts Shea and Shea confesses her frustrations about their relationship and with her binge eating. Not everything can be resolved in a single night, but rekindling a loving friendship is a great place to start.
Funding
As with most projects, most of our budget will go towards paying our wonderful cast and crew! Other major factors are equipment, production design, and location. Also cost for food. People gotta eat! These elements go towards creating our fun and colorful world--bachelorette parties take a lot of work!
If we raise our minimum goal we will be able to shoot and edit this project! If we raise $25,000 or more we will have funding for music and festival submissions. This amount gets our project in front of audiences, spreading awareness, and starting some important conversations.
Why Does this Project Matter?
As someone who is in recovery from binge eating disorder, this story is incredibly personal and important to me. I struggled with this disorder for almost ten years before I even realized I had it! I had never heard of binge eating disorder, and if I had known about it sooner I would have been able to seek help earlier.
So many people struggle with eating and body issues, yet if we say we can't stop eating or don't like the way we look we hear “you just need to work on self control,” or “just love yourself!” But these issues are deeper than a simple mindset. They manifest in our lives in ways many of us don't even realize. If we share our experiences more, we will begin to see we're not alone with our struggles.
With this project we want to bring awareness to binge eating disorder and the burden it causes those who struggle with it. I hope to break through that shame and taboo status through the lens of some beautiful queer relationships and with a little bit of dark humor.
Thank You
Thank you for your interest in our project--and honestly for reading this far down the page!
If, like us, you believe stories like this deserve to be created and shared to spread awareness, we would be so grateful for your investment in bringing this story to life.
J.C. is a nonbinary writer/director who has worked in the film industry for the better part of a decade, most prominently as a script supervisor. They wrote and directed their first short film It Will Happen Eventually in 2019 which screened at LA Women in Film, Indie Short Fest, and received an honorable mention at Hollywood New Directors festival.
A lover of dark comedy and psychological thrillers, J.C. enjoys pulling at the threads of the human psyche and using visual storytelling to capture those abstract concepts. And then laughing a bit--because aren't humans just so strange?
Filmmaker, Leon Pierce Jr., is a Los Angeles native and a natural born storyteller. He has written, produced and directed several short films, including the award winning romance dramedy, Without Her and the romance drama, Broke Lovers. Leon, also wrote, produced, directed and executive produced his first feature film, Welcome Matt, a dramedy about mental health, starring Tahj Mowry and Deon Cole, about an agoraphobic filmmaker, who tries to make a film in his apartment, while doing in home therapy, so he can venture back out into the real world. The film has been distributed by Gravitas Ventures, for a nationwide release on May 28th 2021. It's currently available on Amazon Prime and Tubi.
Natalia Moscoso is a queer Mexican-American cinematographer based in Los Angeles. She is the first in her family to pursue a film-related career, having always been interested in it since childhood. Natalia is a CSUN Alumni with a B.A. in Film & Television Arts and a minor in psychology. Focusing more on the psychological part of her cinematography, she is able to expand her style from organic and intimate textures, to dynamically bigger-than-life qualities. She looks forward to expanding her skills on her next project.
Georgina Navarro is an actress of African and Latin descent. She’s a native of Los Angeles, who attended a three-year conservatory by way of Los Angeles City College Theater Academy. It’s at LACC where she honed her craft in acting on stage. Shortly after she would go on to co-write, and star in her first dramedy short film, LEAD, about an ethnically ambiguous actress being met with challenges of booking a lead role in the industry. Soon after that, she landed a lead role in her first feature, the horror comedy, My First Horror Film, which also features Rosario Dawson. Afterward, she would go on to star in several other short films and a couple more features. As of now Georgina is working at becoming a multi-hyphenate talent by way of acting, writing, and producing. Her aim is to showcase women’s voices in today’s society. She is for sure a superstar in the making!
Becca Q. Co is an actor, voice actor, writer, director, singer, and artist. She graduated from NYU's Tisch School of the Arts with a BFA in Drama.
Becca is deeply passionate about representation, uplifting and celebrating stories by marginalized voices, and spreading love and laughter. She is a proud member of Gabriela Los Angeles, a grassroots Filipino women's organization that serves the community and fights for human rights, locally and abroad.
Arianna brings their incredible wit and style to the role of Taylor. Arianna's recent credits include Nancy Drew and The Obituary of Tunde Johnson.
Growing up in Monterrey, Mexico, Lorena describes herself as “a very stubborn, chubby, intense, hilarious nerd. In an ultra-conservative society that equates ‘Actor’ with whatever your definition of THE OPPOSITE OF A LADY is.”
Her recent credits include The Good Doctor, W.A.L.L.D. and Hotel Pennsylvania.
Lo brings their warmth and sincerity to the role of Em. They graduated from Chapman University's Theatre Performance program, with experience in Shakespeare, Screen Acting, Styles, and Accent work.graduated
Lo's recent credits include They Slay, Allison's Part, and Lem Doesn't Get What He Wants.
We did it!! We completed our campaign successfully. We reached our minimim goal of $10,000 which allows us to unlock the funds and use it toward paying our amazing cast and crew! While we didn't meet our target goal, the Binge project will still be able to move forward and complete production.
Thank you thank you thank you endlessly to everyone who contributed. Big contributions and small contributions all made an incredible difference. It was only because of your generosity and your belief in this project that we have been able to come this far. The success of this campaign is all thanks to you!!
I have been so humbled by your support and I am more motivated than ever to make this short film the best it can be. I will continue to update you on the progress of Binge as we wrap up production and move into the editing world.
Thank you all again.
My gratitude is endless.
J.C.
Hello Everyone!
Tomorrow I will be going live on Facebook and Instagram with our lead actress, Georgina Navarro, to talk about Binge! We'll be talking more in depth about the project and sharing our own stories--all while baking cupcakes. We'll have a fun time chatting together and answering any questions about Binge.
We'll also be announcing a matching donor campaign! For 24 hours any dollar that is donated will be matched by a supporter. $1 Contribution + $1 Matching Contribution = $2 Double the Impact! This special campaign will last until Sunday 10am. Keep a look out for more updates!
Thank you all for your continued interest and support of Binge!
Have a great weekend!
We've reached another milestone! Thanks to everyone who has donated and spread the word about the campaign, we have reached the 5k mark! I'm so excited to see our campaign grow little by little every day.
We're now starting Week 3 of our campaign! Thank you all again-and stay tuned!
We started out Week 1 with a goal of reaching 3k in contributions, and today we surpassed it! Thank you everyone! We will continue to share updates about the project, including interview clips from our cast where they share their own stories and struggles. We will continue to work to make this project a reality! Stay tuned :)
Congratulations and Thank You! We reached our first $1,000 in contributions! That puts us at 5% of our goal in just the first three days of fundraising! We're very excited to continue this campaign and share more of our stories with everyone.
