TAKE ME THERE

Log-Line: A passionate young filmmaker takes the arthouse legend, Chantal Akerman, on a poignant and often humorous scouting trip through a stark and surreal landscape, sparking unexpected personal and artistic discoveries for both. Inspired by true events.

Genre: Road Drama

Locations/Setting: American southwest, 2000

In 2000 I drove arthouse legend, Chantal Akerman, from Los Angeles to the Arizona/Mexico border to scout locations for her film on the Arizona border.  Even though it was a short 3-day road trip, there were many intense moments such as we had run-ins with the police, Chantal was held up by the Border Patrol, we got lost in the desert on top of a mining pit, and our car broke down and we had to have it towed back to Los Angeles. In between these dramatic events were deeply meaningful exchanges where we processed our connections with our family, grief (we had both lost a parent), our love for cinema, and meeting each other’s respective surviving parents.

In 2015 Chantal passed away the same year as my father. While writing the script in 2021-2023, I traced the trip we took in 2000 noticing the dramatic environmental and political changes to the landscape. So even though this film takes place in 2000, it is a harbinger of things to come.

SemiFinalist ScreenCraft Film Fund 2023

Recommended on The Black List 2024

Status: Late development stage.