Our Story

We are team led by working moms that aim to tell authentic stories from both sides of the lens, however our real depth comes from the diversity of cultures and backgrounds of our entire cast and crew. Our goal is to ensure that underrepresented voices are seen and heard in all realms of cinema.

ABOUT THE PROJECT

Since the moment Valerie and I met in Los Angeles over a decade ago, we became like sisters. Our desire and passion to make films about raw human experiences was one of the main components that fused our friendship.  However, when we both moved to Austin and became mothers, we discovered another dimension of our friendship that made us even closer. Becoming moms has been a pivotal component of our lives; we have laughed, cried, and grown together in our new mommy roles, however through it all, our love for making movies has remained.  Since becoming moms, we have wanted to not only work together, but make a movie that highlighted all of the beautiful, challenging, and surprising elements of motherhood.  The concept for “The Place in Between” was born from our desire to explore and illustrate the complexities of the mother-daughter relationship in a unique situation.

A child’s incredible and innate ability to forgive has always intrigued and astounded me and I find it profoundly beautiful.  I see it everyday in my own precious child, and the children I teach in middle school.  Some children experience the unforgivable, yet they are still able to say at the end of the day “I love (so and so) because they are my (mom, dad etc.).”  I have always wondered what the world would be like if we all could maintain that childlike ability to forgive.  What a world that would be.

A little seed of an idea came to me that I shared with Valerie about having a mom and daughter, who have never met, go on a road trip.  Little by little, we dissected that idea and turned it into what it is now.  Valerie came up with the perfect title “The Place in Between” which demonstrates the reality of each character in the film that finds themselves in an “in between” place, and boy don’t we all know what that feels like. We knew we wanted to make a movie that took a look at a human experience in a real and raw way and diving into a mother-daughter relationship and their first meeting seemed to be a perfect way to do that.

In “The Place in Between,” Cassie (mother) is forced to go home and meet her daughter (Lyra) whom she hasn’t seen since birth, when Lyra’s father dies unexpectedly.  A series of unexpected twists and turns ensue as Cassie is forced to drive Lyra across Texas to fulfill a promise that Lyra made to her father.  Although the background context of the film may seem dark, audiences will watch the story unfold through an often comedic lens. I have learned that laughter is not only the best medicine, but the guise by which we hide behind during painful situations, and can sometimes be the catalyst that leads us to unimaginable forgiveness.

When we decided to make this film, we were committed to only work with people we love.  We have been blessed to assemble an incredibly talented team; each making a valuable contribution to our film, and each committed to making the best film possible.  We are all excited about this journey and have already shared so many belly aching moments of laughter that ultimately resulted in brilliant work that we are already so proud of.

We were successful in raising our fundraising goal for pre-production last Summer and are working hard to raise our production funds now so that we can proceed with pricipal photography in July.  I hope after reading our story and seeing the videos that are a little window to us and our vision you will be inspired to support and/or contribute to our film.  We are committed to making authentic movies about real human experiences, and the only way we can do that is with your help.

In the colorful life I have lived, I have learned one thing that stands above all else:  love is the only thing that really matters.  As you join us in our journey, I think that is what you will see; our amazing team loving working together, loving the adventure of filmmaking, and creating a story that will hopefully spark the building of a bridge to forgiveness for someone out there.  In that forgiveness, we hope that there will be love.

Please support us, and come along for the ride.  It’s going to be fun!

– The Place in Between Cast and Crew