Unconformity (n): A missing interval in the geologic record of time, caused by erosion or an interruption in deposition.

L O G L I N E

Trailblazing geologist, Dr. Annie Tallon's fight for academic recognition becomes a fight for survival when she returns to the mountains where she once conducted her research.

V I S I O N

A riveting survival story about an aging scientist coming to terms with an increasing unknown.
A suspenseful, life-affirming story about how we make sense of the world around us.

REFERENCE FILMS:

127 Hours, Wild, The Father,
The Diving Bell and the Butterfly, Still Alice

Characters

Dr. Annie Tallon

At 72, Annie has been retired five years, and diagnosed with Alzheimer's disease for two.

Good days feel almost normal. Bad days are a fog that won’t lift as she struggles to retain new information. Her memories metamorphose as details distort or decay.

Struggling with anger and depression and her lifelong independent streak, she resists her adult children's attempts to take care of her.

In 1990, 38-year-old Young Annie is the first woman on track to get tenure in her university's geology department.

She is independent - out of choice and necessity - preferring her team of loyal graduate students to her sometimes hostile, sometimes patronizing colleagues. She believes effort and merit will always be rewarded.

She struggles to balance her passion for her work and her role as a mother.

Supporting Characters

Damien & Tanya

Damien: At 39, he has it all. A demanding job as a sales engineer, two kids, high blood pressure, debt, and a relentless drive to be a perfect husband, father, businessman, and son. Annie's care and his need to please are straining his relationship with his wife, a full-time nurse.

Tanya: Annie's daughter, 44, a skilled interior designer lives the perfect distance away from her mom - 300 miles - almost as big as the rift between them. She feels guilty about the elder care burden falling on Damien and his family.

Dr. Paul Heubert (Dr. H.)

With one eye on his retirement, the chair of the geology department opposes Annie’s tenure is due in part to his inability to see women as scholarly equals ("where women really shine is in support roles") and in part to decades of playing university politics.

Mia Mansuri

One of Annie's loyal graduate students. Adventurous and eager, Mia loves field work, having a fellow woman as a mentor, and is experiencing her own challenges with discrimination and sexism in the department.

Dr. Leonard Mahood

Nearing 70, Dr. Mahood is an entrenched professor. He might be long past his prime, but his ego is still in full bloom. He misses the good old days. He distrusts Annie's embrace of new technologies, but his biggest opposition to her tenure is that her work threatens to supplant his own.

Dr. Zach Fowler

A fellow professor tenured one year prior, Dr. Fowler sees himself as an ally of his female colleague. But when faced with the choice of openly supporting Annie or falling in line with departmental pressure, his first concern is his own career.

T H E M E S

SURVIVAL IN THE FACE OF UNCONTROLLABLE FORCES

Institutional discrimination is as old as institutions. How do outsiders fight the power?
Alzheimer's disease is incurable and indiscriminate. How do the afflicted and their families respond?

DIVERSITY IN SCIENCE & ACADEMIA

How diversity in science fosters fresh perspectives, cross-disciplinary connections, and new discoveries
How discrimination and social expectations towards women affects their opportunities

T O N E & V I S U A L S T Y L E

This parallel narratives story has one timeline in 1990 when Annie is 38, the other in the present when Annie is 70.

The present-day story is a journey to the underworld, visually highlighting Annie’s vulnerability in the vast outdoors. The stakes of her being lost and stranded will be heightened by recreating visual and aural cognitive errors common in Alzheimer’s, including light and depth distortion, illusions, hallucinations, and dream confusion.

Transitions between present and past are liminal. Conveying the sense that when Annie returns to her still intact memories, she is moving from a present where she feels weak and powerless to a time when she felt empowered to overcome challenges.

In the past narrative setting, visuals will convey a more confident Annie with scenes that evoke a nostalgic sense of security.

At the climax of the film, the two timelines merge in Annie’s perception.

L O C A T I O N S

INTERIORS

Mid-century ranch homes with 80s/90s and modern decor.

Academic and professional offices.

EXTERIORS

Desert area in proximity to urban settings, e.g. Muddy Mountains and Valley of Fire outside of Las Vegas, NV

INT.

EXT.

I N S P I R A T I O N S

This painting of my grandmother hangs on the wall by my writing desk.
It is evocative of Annie's mental state and vulnerability as well as her relationship to the desert.

At 81, my mother insists on walking alone, even though her ability to gauge if it is too hot outside or how much water to bring is no longer reliable.

Worse yet, she has developed a penchant for exploring "shortcuts",

Some Alzheimer's sufferers experience visual disturbances that prompt erratic behavior. To caregivers, it looks irrational, but for their person, fear, fixation, panic, or anger is a rational response to what they experience.

A solitary journey.

Why have I come here?

Landscape of the subconscious.