Honeydew

Runtime: 87'

Expected release: September, 2023

Production stage: Post- production

Budget: €493.866 (83% in place)

1st feature: Yes

Looking for: Festivals, Distributors, Buyers, Gap financing

Synopsis:

Honeydew isn’t just a town it’s a state of mind. Maureen, 60s, moved to the tiny Northern California enclave in her 20s, seeking freedom in its purest form. But her simple life of writing country songs and illegally cultivating weed is disrupted due to the legalization of marijuana. Unable to adapt to government bureaucracy she has no choice but to surrender her corner of paradise to a younger generation.

Director’s profile:

Born in Parma, Italy in 1991, Marco Bergonzi obtained a degree in Architecture at the Polytechnic University of Milan. He returned to Parma where he completed his studies in 2018 with a multidisciplinary thesis about informal living. Through this research he came into contact with humanistic disciplines such as anthropology and sociology. As a passionate photographer/cinematographer, and storyteller, he has dedicated the last three years to documentary cinema. Honeydew is his first feature length film.

Co-Director’s profile:

Born in Turin, Italy in 1992, upon graduating from Liceo socio psico pedagogico, Michael Petrolini enrolled as a Sociology major in Milan but later took a hiatus from his studies to work and travel. Over the next five years he journeyed and worked an array of jobs in the United States, Australia, Japan, Taiwan, South East Asia and Africa. In 2017 he took classes at the Rosencrantz & Guildenstern school of cinema in Bologna, where he graduated in November 2018. Honeydew is his first feature length film.

Producer’s profile:

Simone Catania is director and producer. In 2007 he cofounded Indyca in Turin, an independent movie production company oriented to international co-production. He produced films premiered at important international film festivals like Venice Film Festival, SXSW, IDFA, HotDocs and nominated at prestigious prices such as EFA and Nastri d’Argento, among the others. Currently, he is also working on an international coproduction film titled ‘Samia’ directed by Yasemin Samdereli.
Francesca Portalupi started her career in the film production with the documentary ‘Almost Married’, which premiered at IDFA in 2010. She joined Indyca in 2019 where she is executive producer of creative documentaries and feature films. Among the productions: ‘Happy Winter’ (premiered in Venezia), ‘We Are the Thousand’ (SXSW), ‘Cuban Dancer’ (Miami, San Francisco) and ‘The Store’ (BFI, Rotterdam).