Ever wonder: if I died tomorrow, who would come to my funeral? How badly do you want to know the answer? And how far would you go to find out? Friended to Death tracks the comedic extremes to which Facebook addict Michael Harris will go in his desperate attempt to find out who his true friends are. After having the worst day of his life, Michael (Ryan Hansen - Veronica Mars, Party Down), finds himself fired from his dream job and ditched by his best friend Joel (Zach McGowan - Shameless, Black Sails). Wounded and vengeful, with nothing more to lose than his own inflated ego, Michael does what any social media-obsessed loner would do: he fakes his death online to see who shows up at his staged funeral. But what begins as a simple litmus test for friendship combusts into a nuclear meltdown leaving Michael to contain the fallout. In the end, a tongue-in-cheek commentary emerges from the ashes, in this hilarious examination of friendship in today’s hyper-connected world of social media.
LA-based writer/director Sarah Smick started graduate school seven months postpartum… and promptly became well-versed in mom guilt. Yes, she was recognized by Humanitas and the Annenberg Foundation, but it meant ditching her kid and pumping in closets between classes. Mom of the Year. Inspired by these painful trade-offs, Sarah’s work explores the costs of being seen and heard.
Before earning her M.F.A. in Writing for Screen & Television from the University of Southern California, Sarah graduated with honors from Columbia University, then directed and produced indies, working with the Duplass Brothers, among others. Her feature film writing/directorial debut FRIENDED TO DEATH won Best American Indie at the Edmonton International Film Festival. It was released by Gravitas Ventures and played theatrically on 17 screens across the U.S. The Washington Post called it, “an assured debut.” Sarah also directed the female buddy comedy web series OLD SOULS, which won Best of Fest at ITVFest and was released by SnagFilms.
