MOON STUDENT(noun)
An individual who endures a shattering defeat, but uses it to become a student of life.
A person on a mission to dig deeper into everything, to find out who they are, and to uncover what their true purpose/mission is in life. Someone spurred on to grow after a devastating loss.
That’s the terminology touted by the new filmMoon Students, which is set to be a charming and obviouslytopical indie comedy-dramathat very well may make Sydney Carvill a star. Written, produced, and directed by Daniel Holland, the film is a reflection of our collective traumas over the past few years, starring the magnetic Carvill (Adalynn) as the most prominent member of a friend group who tries to endure and adapt to COVID-19, protests, and sociopolitical chaos as their lives and school experience are upended. You can check out an exclusive clip and more about the film below.
Moon Students Continues COVID Cinema
Moon Studentsis set to combine humor and psychological drama in both a coming-of-age adventure politically contemporary indie. It’s one of several recent films to explore the pandemic,a kind of COVID cinemawhich dissects the trauma and impact of the virus across society. Horror has navigated the theme well in great films likeHost, Sick, andIn the Earth, but there have also beengood indie rom-comslike7 DaysandLanguage Lessons.
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Moon Studentshopes to join that lineage, and with a diverse cast of characters and broad narrative, it may capture the aimlessness, loneliness, and confusion many of us felt in 2020 and 2021 especially. You can check out an extended synopsis below:
“Lita is a Latinx immigrant living in a part of East Los Angeles where the expectations are low, people are stereotyped, and divisions run deep. After her boyfriend Antonio gets into an unseen altercation with their community college history professor, Mr. Ethan Cole, Antonio is suspended, leaving Lita confused over what truly happened. Cue Coronavirus. Campus is closed. Classes are held remotely. The world is turned upside-down. Friends become dangerously ill. Cole loses faith in himself. Antonio becomes a drunk. And the mystery of what happened between Cole and Antonio starts to haunt Lita.After a friend’s sudden death, Antonio opens up after a night of heavy drinking. Lita discovers that Cole humiliated Antonio, spurring on the fight. She convinces Cole to help Antonio, after she confronts him over his own misdeeds. The three then face each other one last time. When they do, they are changed forever.Set during the 2020 pandemic and the George Floyd protests, Moon Students explores the power in speaking painful yet healing truths in the darkest, most challenging times—that is what it means to be a Moon Student.”
Youthful Rebels and Complicated Causes
You can find Holland’s moving Director’s Note below as well:
The summer of 2020 was an earthquake of challenges, change and hopeful rebellion, and so, in a way, “Moon Students” is a film about youthful rebels. Hopefully, though, it is not the kind with which we are most familiar. In the wake of George Floyd’s tragic death, I saw many young underdogs struggling, however imperfectly, to be heard. I empathize with such underdogs, those embattled and marginalized citizens who must disentangle themselves from tough circumstances, then find enough courage to speak up and out. I wrote “Moon Students” to capture their struggle to be heard.
Simply put, it is just damn hard to coax a society to change its ways of thinking. It can literally be like trying to yell from the moon down to the earth in order to be heard. So, yes, this is a story of underdogs and marginalized rebels who must fight to be heard by the culture at large, but there will be no switchblades or guns. Hopefully, there will simply be fully developed human beings who happen to be young. My goal is to avoid the usual tropes in favor of more elemental emotional truths. There are no rebels without causes, but the pathos will be ever-present nonetheless because speaking truth to power is an arduous business, especially if you’re a person of color. Sometimes though, when it is done with courage and hope, a fresh, more inclusive reality is the reward, one in which we can all share.
Moon Studentswill be released on June 13th from Gravitas Ventures. You can find morehere.
