Goodbye Casey Trade
TFI Suppport
TFI Network 2016
Logline
In order to torment the people in her life who have neglected her, teen oddball Casey Trade enlists an outcast’s help to fake her own suicide. She soon finds out that the devoted attention of her cohort presents a new set of problems.
Amanda Brennan
SCREENWRITER, DIRECTOR
Amanda Brennan decided on a life behind the camera in pre-school, when she turned down the role of Dorothy in the annual production of ‘The Wizard of Oz’ and offered to help ‘boss people around’ instead. Massachusetts College of Art recognized her ability to blur the lines between comedy and drama and she graduated with honors, receiving the prestigious Lila Chalpin Creative Writing Award. She graduated with honors from the MFA Film Program at Columbia University. Her thesis short film, Goodbye Casey Trade has played around the country and won the Best Director Award at the Boston Underground Film Festival. Her feature length script, The Dust, was the 2014 recipient of the Sloan Foundation Feature Film Development Award and the 2015 recipient of the Sloan Producer’s Grant from Film Independent.
Rob Cristiano
PRODUCER
Rob Cristiano is a Brooklyn-born independent filmmaker. His producing credits include indie features (Sundance ’15, Winner - Crystal Globe - Karlovy Vary Int’l Film Festival), and Keep The Change, as well as the Broadway-themed web series Understudies.
Lisa Kelly
PRODUCER
Lisa Kelly is a businesswoman by day and a film producer by night. Her creative experience includes writing, editing, acting, stand-up comedy and film production. With a Harvard MBA, Lisa uses her hiring, firing and deal-making skills to compliment the artistic visions of the directors she works with. Lisa has produced several short films, including Goodbye Casey Trade which won Best Short at the Boston Independent Film Festival and Sahasi Chori (Brave Girl), which screened at 28 film festivals including SXSW and Palm Springs. She is currently in post-production on What If, Right Now, a short film based on Victory Lap, the first short story in the New York Times best-selling collection by George Saunders. Her philosophy on being a film producer: partner with writer/directors who tell real stories in a unique way and provide support to execute on the vision.
Ryan Silbert
EXECUTIVE PRODUCER
A NY-based independent filmmaker with award-winning work recognized by the Academy Awards®, the Canadian Academy of Film & Television, Sundance, MoMa, IFP, the Toronto International Film Festival, and the Berlinale. Recent films include producing credits on The Girl is in Trouble, Executive Produced by Spike Lee (eOne 2015), God of Love (Oscar® Winner Best Live Action Short), and Doubles With Slight Pepper (TIFF Jury Prize and Canadia Screen Award Winner). Additional feature producing credits include Sundance selection Holy Rollers (Deauville and Gotham Awards Winner), Bastards of Young (FilmBuff) & Without Shepherds (Slamdance 2014). He is also executive producer on A Birder’s Guide to Everything (Tribeca Film Festival, ScreenMedia) starring Academy-Award winner Sir Ben Kingsley and Some Velvet Morning (Tribeca Films) directed by Neil LaBute. His production work with leading visual artists include collaborations with Adam Kalkin (Push Button House, 2010), Shadi Sharokhi (Digital Cribs, 2012, Flow Tribeca, 2015) and Holly Zausner (Unsettled Matter, 2015)