Bijou was once a wonderful young woman who wanted to become a dancer, but fate stood in her way and prevented her from achieving her dream. Yet, after an incident leaves her for dead, Bijou rises like the Phoenix. The once lovely woman, however, is different somehow… Now, a highly sought after model, she has the world at her feet – but the only thing really piling up around her are the bodies… What happened to Bijou?
And that is TRAUMA DOLLS.
No, you can’t head to your local theatre to catch the film, and it’s not available on Netflix – yet – but writer/director, Emilie Flory is about to change all that.
Last year, Denise Gossett and company featured the trailer at Shriekfest. That alone was enough to get my heart pumping. After looking at Emilie’s Icone Label Pictures site, I was hooked even more because I found much more than TRAUMA DOLLS: I discovered a passionate artist in Emilie, and her wonderful short film that grasped my attention.
In Emilie’s short film, PROCESS 5, we watch a resistance group doing their best to not only survive, but thrive in an ever decaying world. Unlike most dystopian tales, we remain with the group in their place of refuge and dive into a dramatic tale of coping skills and distrust amidst paranoia. Emilie’s writing is solid, and her lines, like poetry, speak volumes: “Blood never prevented betrayal.” That certainly puts a twist on the old phrase that “blood is thicker than water”, and once that line slips from the lips of a character, we know we’re in for something different than watching a group of people storming government warehouses for food, or taking on a military outpost. Any other writer and director could have stuck with exploiting the tropes of the dystopian subgenre and become trapped by cliché, but Emilie went deeper, and even darker, by keeping us in an intimate setting where the true colors of the characters are revealed. Even so, I think Emilie is making a greater statement: In the face of calamity, we will continue to remain self-centered and egotistical regardless of our best intentions. After all, if everyone could see the “bigger picture”, wouldn’t the world be a better place already? Regardless of what the future holds for any of us, utopian or dystopian, Emilie reminds us that we’re human and we’ll continue to carry our baggage with us into the future no matter changes around us.
This is why I’m so interested in seeing her feature film, TRAUMA DOLLS, come to fruition. Emilie won’t take us down a road less traveled, she’ll bulldoze her own path, and we’ll follow like children discovering something new and unsettling. And to help bring her story to light, the director of photography, who also shot PROCESS 5, Tariel Meliava, will bring his stellar talents to the screen. To prove my point, one simply has to watch the great 13 TZAMETI where Tariel won the Kodak Award for Best Director of Photography. His cinematography kept the story moving, and kept us engaged, and he will definitely bring us remarkable visuals with TRAUMA DOLLS (again, just watch the trailer).
Right now, Emilie is hard at work trying to capture the attention of distributors and producers in the United States. Though she hails from the phenomenal city of Paris, her desire is to shoot the film on American soil and in English. The wonderful Cameron Watson has translated Emilie’s script to English, and helped her create a press kit, which I have had the pleasure of reading. I’m sold. Unfortunately, Crash Palace Productions is not Cash Palace because I only have spider webs in the cracked coffers. But if you’re seriously interested in learning more about Emilie, TRAUMA DOLLS, and her Icone Label Pictures, just check out the links below. And if you want to invest in what could be an amazing horror film, ask to see the press kit.
And I hope you contact her soon and get a production schedule ready – because TRAUMA DOLLS must be made. Because horror fans are waiting to indulge in Bijou’s story…
Emilie Flory is a screenwriter/filmmaker.
She has, among other things, written and directed PROCESSUS5, a 10-minute futuristic short movie shot in 35mm that was critically acclaimed and screened at HollyShorts in Los Angeles. TRAUMA DOLLS was a semi-finalist at the Shriekfest Screenplay Competition in 2013 and finalist at the Fright Night Film Fest in 2014.
IF INTERESTED, DM HER:
@EmilieFlory
LEARN MORE ABOUT EMILIE:
INTERVIEW BY BILLY CRASH FOR THE LAST KNOCK
http://crashpalaceproductions.com/2014/08/10/crash-discussions-interview-trauma-dolls-director-emilie-flory-cinematographer-tariel-meliava-dialogue-coach-cameron-watson/ …
INTERVIEW BY DEAN SILLS FOR UK HORROR SCENE:
http://www.ukhorrorscene.com/an-interview-with-emilie-flory-by-dean-sills/
INTERVIEW BY EMORY SLONE FOR MALEVOLENT (P16-P19):
http://joom.ag/1aTb?page=18#.VDKVHcLrPxU.mailto
http://www.iconelabelpictures.com/
https://www.facebook.com/ilp.iconelabelpictures