Genre
Synopsis
Ah, to be young and carefree. But that’s about to end for our protagonist, Mae, who has always been the perfect daughter. She does everything her mother, Congresswoman Frances Hathaway, asks of her. That is, until Frances sets fire to her entire worldview by accepting a gigantic campaign donation from billionaire homophobe Jefferson Qualdorf.
Mae might be naive, but she’s not stupid. She’s in the middle of Das Kapital, after all. The Qualdorf conundrum is against her values, but Frances needs her daughter’s newfound queer identity to enamour distrustful millennial voters. Bobbie, the hawkish campaign manager, implores Mae to appear on the cover of Proud and Loud magazine to endorse her mother. Frances’ success could be Mae’s success one day.
Mae resolves to participate in the Loud and Proud photoshoot to endorse her mother. The polls aren’t looking good and Frances’ young lefty opponent Vanessa is gaining an edge. During the shoot, Mae becomes smitten with Ginny, a creative director for the magazine. Instead of seducing Mae, Ginny warns her that Bobbie and Frances are using Mae’s mental health issues for the story to win sympathy votes.
Mae half-heartedly attends the democratic primary debate. She’s not sure what her next step is, but it becomes clearer when Frances humiliates Mae on stage. Mae resolves to blow up her life, hijack the campaign and come out in favor of her mother’s opponent on the front cover of Proud and Loud.
Bio
Amanda Lundquist is a feature film director whose films have screened at over 15 film festivals worldwide. Her second feature, ASKING FOR IT, stars Stephanie Hsu (MARVELOUS MRS. MAISEL) and Janeane Garofalo (WET HOT AMERICAN SUMMER). The film premiered at the Woodstock Film Festival and was acquired by the Fuse Television Network. Her first feature, PINSKY won “Best Narrative Feature” at the Santa Fe Independent Film Festival and was distributed by Breaking Glass Pictures in 2019. Both features are currently streaming on Amazon Prime.
In 2021, she was a finalist in Starz's Take the Lead Initiative and additionally served as a juror on the Santa Fe Independent Film Festival's Narrative Feature Jury. Amanda lives in Brooklyn with her partner, Olga Vazquez, who DP’d both ASKING FOR IT and PINSKY. Amanda is a member of Film Fatales and the Alliance of Women Directors. She is committed to gender and racial parity in the film industry and believes that self-representation and inclusive collaboration is the future of the independent film community.
