Synopsis

When two young lesbians struggling with personal demons get carbon monoxide poisoning during a first date and fall into a coma, their disembodied spirits must learn how to love one another and themselves to have a chance at waking up.

Director Biography – Max Rissman

Max Rissman is a writer and director whose first feature film, UPON WAKING, won the Alternative Spirit award at the 2023 Rhode Island Film Festival. His digital series ROOT FOR THE VILLAIN was an official selection of the 2018 Austin Film Festival and Bentonville Film Festival, his feature screenplay GRANDPA won grand prize at the 2018 Roadmap Writers Jumpstart Competition, and his screenplay HIT ME HARDER was featured on the 2020 GLAAD List, an award presented at the Sundance Film Festival by The Black List and GLAAD. After attending college at Washington University in St. Louis and completing New York University’s MFA program in filmmaking, he has been creating stories that employ magical realism and elevated genre to explore deep questions about spiritual healing and self-acceptance. His love of storytelling began at four years old, when he forced his parents to watch and act out “The Wizard of Oz” every single night.

Director Statement

Upon Waking is the story of two characters learning to transcend their fear of death, as well as overcome their resistance to intimacy and deeply held feelings of self-loathing, during a shared near-death experience. The characters wrestle with themes of forgiveness of both self and other, healing the pain of abandonment, facing one’s deep dark places, and what it means to sacrifice and love unconditionally. Making this film was a transformative experience for myself and my creative collaborators, and we hope to share the film with an audience that resonates with its rich and complex messages.