Synopsis: The film starts out as a documentary about three friends going to Mount Rushmore for spring break. Each character uses the screen to tell his own story. We see each character as he wishes us to see him. Each character tells us what to think about his two friends. But as the film progresses the aspect ratio changes and the film stops being a documentary controlled by the characters and becomes a birds-eye view into the lives of these three friends that is completely unfiltered. We see them as they truly are (the good, the bad, and everything else that they wish to hide). This film explores the psyche of Gen Zers and their relationship to the plethora of technology that rests at their fingertips.

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The antithesis for this film began two summers ago when I saw North by Northwest for the first time as part of a retrospective series in my hometown St. Louis, MO. It was the first time I saw a Hitchcock film on the big screen and I was completely blown away. The story, the characters, and everything about the film deeply moved me. I left the theater knowing that I somehow wanted to pay tribute to this film. I had only recently given serious thought to the idea of making a movie myself. I was not even interested in movies until the end of high school. But after seeing this film and based on the fact that I was going to school in North Dakota, just one state away from Mount Rushmore, I felt that this was the perfect time to make a movie of my own. I wrote the script for North by South Dakota with my friends and myself in mind for the characters. We shot it over the course of a semester and actually spent our Spring break shooting in Rapid City and at Mount Rushmore. This film is in part a commentary on my own generation. Recently I have been hearing a lot from people such as teachers that my generation is going to “build an incredible future”. While I hope that is true, people my age have no shortage of flaws. We struggle to get along with people who hold opinions that differ from our own, we are very uneducated in our history, and we have at best consistently struggled to make good use of the technology at our disposal. I specifically tried to focus on the struggles with technology. The 16:9 aspect ratio in the film is supposed to be similar to how we use social media. This is footage that our characters want the audience to see. We get a glimpse into who they are, but it is only the glimpse that they allow us to see (similar to the glimpses of lives that we see on social media). The 1:1 aspect ratio in the film is supposed to be everything that the characters do not show us (the things that people don’t post on social media). Here we see who they truly are. Some of it is bad, but some of it is also good. In addition to flaws, people my age also possess a great number of strengths. I think the greatest of these is the ability to build strong relationships with people despite our flaws. I hope that people who watch this film come away feeling that the future can either be dark or bright. It all depends on whether or not we choose to love each other in spite of our flaws.

I am a first time filmmaker. I am also currently a student at the University of Mary. I will be graduating this summer with a Bachelor’s in Sports and Leisure Management and a minor in Philosophy. I hope to continue my journey as a filmmaker after I graduate.

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