A Cure

  • Director

    Courtney Wetzel

  • Country, Year, Length

    United States, 2025, 9:20

  • Category

    Narrative Short

  • Format

    Red Dragon

  • Festival Year

    2025

Synopsis

A woman wakes in a strange room, to the gentle tones of singing bowls and windchimes. As she pieces together what brought her here, the question echoes: “What happened to those other women, the ones who didn’t wake up?”

Film Screening & Ticket Information

When & Where to See this Film!

…COMING SOON…

Film Information

From the Director

Director Statement

The making of this film is in two parts: before and after the COVID-19 epidemic. We shot in January of 2020, under the direction of Ellen Donnelly. Then the world stopped. When (at long last) we came back, I stepped in as director in post-production, with a new goal: take this footage and make it my own, frame it with context and vision as true to me as Ellen’s had been to her, while honoring the work that had already been done. No big. As we crafted Paloma’s outer life, it took shape. Society tells women we can have it all…. within narrow confines, in prescribed ways, and seen through the proper filter. And we internalize, perpetuate, post, share, and like our way to the next “Cure.” What story do we tell, and who is watching?

Producer’s Statement:
Burn it Down is a filmmaking collective that initially set out to create a community where emerging filmmakers could learn by shooting microshorts in a scrappy, supportive, and collaborative environment. As producers, we also wanted to practice holistic leadership in the filmmaking process.

After three years, 18 films, and 58 participants, we decided to expand our goals: could we curate a team to create two polished short films with this same ethos? Could we raise our creative bar, while still maintaining the space for learning? Could we address issues and conflicts while moving a film forward through the stressors that indie filmmaking with a tight budget always presents?

And so, five years and two films later, we are proud to have made it to the final phase of this experiment. Hello Again is a product of collaboration and exploration-of-process, created through pandemics, strikes, and life-changing events. We are proud of this film both for the art we’ve created and for the process we went through to create it. We hope you enjoy this labor of love as much as we do!

Director Biography

Courtney Wetzel (Director) is a Brooklyn-based director, writer, filmmaker, and collaborator. In recent years, she was director of an immersive multi-media experience: Beauteous (Craig muMs Grant; Andrew Freedman Home, MoMA), co-writer of an original romance podcast: A Ladies’ Guide to Scoundrels (Maya Rodale and Courtney Wetzel), and host/producer of Ecstatic/Ekphrastic, a gallery tour featuring original theater inspired by the installations at the Brooklyn Waterfront Artists Coaliton. She is a member of Burn It Down and The Farm Theater’s Director’s Roundtable.

Credits

    • Courtney Wetzel
      Director
      The Accident, Frigid Festival award winner
    • Jan Rosenberg
      Writer
      guts (Sundance ’24)
    • Lena Hudson
      Producer
      Daddy’s Girl (Sundance ’22)
    • Max Woertendyke
      Producer
      Brightwood Film, Horrorhound Film Festival award winner. Succession, Longmire, American Horror Stories.
    • Jessica O’Hara-Baker
      Producer
      F-Word film, winner at the Toronto Independent Film Festival
    • Jean Goto
      Key Cast
      “Doctor”
      Younger, Extrapolations, Bull
    • Orly Shemesh
      Key Cast
      “Paloma”
      The Dog Walker, New Haven Film Festival award winner
    • Jessica O’Hara-Baker
      Executive Producer
    • Jean Goto
      Executive Producer