Lake Forest Filmmaker Crowdfunding 'Deeply Personal' Short Film

LAKE FOREST, IL — A local filmmaker is raising money for a new film set in the American South in the 1920's. Lain Kienzle, a 24-year-old Lake Forest native and graduate LFHS (2010) and NYU (2014), says she wants to give voice to generations of women with her new period drama, The Mouse and the Lion.

The film follows Mildred, a young woman enduring an abusive marriage while working on her family's farm. But when she finds a stranger collapsed on her front porch after a blizzard, their relationship begins to uncover hidden truths.

Kienzle, who lives in Brooklyn, tells Patch the inspiration for the film was deeply personal. She said the Mouse and the Lion is being produced by a creative team of mostly woman seeking to tell a story about the impact of domestic violence with an understanding of the complexities of a woman's experience.

"I had a series of relationships in my younger years that really made me believe I couldn't be loved. And then, in high school, I started dating someone who stuck with me and forced me to reckon with the possibility that I did deserve love after all," she said. That relationship is still going strong. Her boyfriend Tim is sound mixing the film.

"I started realizing that there were all kinds of people who loved me in lots of different ways and I hadn't even realized it," she said. "So this film is really a love letter to that moment that someone or something re-opens your eyes to your own self-worth."

With abuse and harassment making headlines on a daily basis and upending the Hollywood power structure, the doors are now opening for women storytellers to get their work produced, Kienzle said. She said she noticed she has regularly been the only woman in the room throughout her career – going all the way back to high school.

"This film is so incredibly important right now. It's a film by women, about a real, flawed, honest female character, that speaks to the experience of so many women all over the world. And it's coming at a time when we're watching women whose stories of abuse and assault are destabilizing powerful men in Hollywood and Capitol Hill," she said. Women filmmakers are today directing major network television shows and multi-million dollar franchises, in a noticeable change from just a few years ago.

"Ultimately, we're watching as women's voices ring out together and make real impact like never before," Kienzle said. "So for me, this movie is two things: a way to express values I want to express with my own voice, and a way to band together with other women, both narratively and professionally, and make our joint experience understood and as loud as possible."

Kienzle herself has been making movies for nearly a decade. When she was 16, she made a film set over 70 years that garnered a 2nd place finish at a 2010 festival and is still shown to LFHS film students today.

Set to shoot over the winter in New York, Kienzle and her production team for The Mouse and the Lion have launched an online fundraising campaign to back the film, which has already been getting positive response from film festivals across the country. Some of the perks available for those who donate include getting your face inserted into a historical photograph, get a homemade jam based on a secret family recipe, producer credits and special screenings.

Some of the honors Kienzle's past work has received include the 2011 short film B Majoring, which was awarded the Juror’s Prize at the Chicagoland High School Film Festival. The following year, her short film, Squatters, received an Audience Choice award and was runner-up for Best Screenwriting at the 2012 Chicago 48 Hour Film Festival.

Her most recent short film, The Nappers, was shot in Lake Forest with a New York-based cast. It involved wrangling a 300-pound alligator and a 9-foot boa constrictor and it is an official selection at the Garden State Film Festival, Windy City Film Festival, NYU’s New Visions and Voices Festival. It was also nominated for best editing at the Prairie State Film Festival.

After studying film and TV production at NYU, Kienzle has held a variety of positions in the world of television, including production coordinator, producer, first assistant director and others and worked on shows like The Blacklist, 30 Rock and Quantico. She has also been script supervisor for a number of independent features and worked on branded content for clients like Food Network.

She encouraged aspiring filmmakers to tell every story that really matters, regardless of the public's response.

"If you have something you need to say, say it," Kienzle said. "I can't tell you how many times my friends and I have all used our own money and begged favors from friends to make films. There are so many outlets to make and share films that there's really no excuse to not tell your stories."

It's also vital to experience other artist's work and support its creation, she said.

"Find art you fall in love with, find art that makes you uncomfortable, and then figure out why you're feeling those things and apply it," she urged. "Support artists at every level: go to the opera, read comics, buy tickets to tiny art shows, support independent films, do favors for friends who're making their art."

"Not only do you get to experience new work, but you're helping bring it into the world," Kienzle said. "The world desperately needs more art and it needs you to contribute your time, effort, money and voice in order to create it."

» More: Support The Mouse and the Lion's crowdfunding campaign

_{Top photo: Lain Kienzle and her cat, Cosmo | Courtesy Lain Kienzle}