Genre
Synopsis
RIPE is an elevated horror film about reproductive rights - where the life cycle goes into overdrive and causes women to lose control over their bodies.
The film starts with an American flight attendant escaping on the last flight out of a Central American country erupting in civil war. The crew takes off in an aging airplane and slowly realize there’s a presence on the plane with them - ghost children - massacred in a previous civil war - who are dying to be reborn. The ghosts won’t let the plane land unless they gets what they want - revenge and a new mother.
Fertility runs amok, and the plane heats up, becoming more organic by the minute. Vines grow from seats, vermin run underfoot, and the passengers descend into a sea of primal behavior geared towards procreation.
Our hero, who’s gotten used to playing small for too long, has to fight the ghosts to keep them from impregnating her and becoming a monster herself.
Bio
Mia Trachinger is a genre writer/director who makes films that scratch society’s underbelly. She has lived many lives: indie filmmaker, UCLA film school professor, television marketing consultant, activist.
Mia’s first two features, BUNNY and REVERSION, played at Sundance, Toronto, were nominated for Independent Spirit Awards, won Cinequest and earned Mia Hollywood Reporter’s “25 New Faces To Watch” distinction.
Mia has been invited to the Film Independent Screenplay Lab, Stowe Story Lab and has been a mentee in Women In Film Mentorship Circles.
Additionally, Mia was selected to write and direct a grounded sci-fi episode for ITVS’ FUTURESTATES Television Series which commissioned indie directors such as Barry Jenkins and Nisha Ganatra to make sci-fi stand alone episodes for the program. She partnered with Justin Lin and directed the comedy short SAF SEEKING for his online production company YOMYOMF, helmed the online series FEMALE MOMENTS for Two Funny Brains and directed English dubbing for Netflix. Last year, Mia and her screenplay RIPE were selected for Stowe Story Labs 2023.
After a passage spent as faculty teaching directing at UCLA’s School of Film and Television, Mia is back working on her third feature WHAT REMAINS produced by Justin Lin’s Perfect Storm Entertainment.
An avid backpacker, Mia is a native of Silverlake, Los Angeles where she lives with her family.
