Natasha Maidoff

Natasha Maidoff

(She/Her)
Independent Filmmaker
She Films/A Different Animal Productions
Filmmaker Natasha Maidoffs work is held in the permanent collection of the Museum of Modern Art, New York, and in the Elizabeth A. Sackler Center for Feminist Art at the Brooklyn Museum.
Full Bio
Filmmaker Natasha Maidoff s work is held in the permanent collection of the Museum of Modern Art, New York, and in the Elizabeth A. Sackler Center for Feminist Art at the Brooklyn Museum. Her films have toured internationally, including screenings at the Guggenheim and Pecci Museums. She has received artist residencies to Yaddo, VCCA, and the Wexner Center for the Arts. Maidoff holds an MFA in Screenwriting from UCLA and a B.A. in Creative Writing from Oberlin College. She has been the recipient of UCLA's Director s Spotlight Award and a Mellon Grant.
Professional Credits
The Fullest Day of Summer, Is There A Cure For My Friend, The Orange Orange, Live Cinema The Motherboard, The Cowgirl & The Sleepwalker, The Paw Paw, Miracle Mile Supporting Cast & Crew Reunion, Miracle Mile Excavations from the Editing Room Tarpits, The Stone Thieves, Indigo Girls: Watershed, Roller Hockey: Dutch TV, An American Painter in Italy, Traverse
Industry Awards
UCLA's Director's Spotlight Award, Artist Residencies at Yaddo, the Wexner Center for the Arts, VCCA, and VCCA in Auvillar, France, Mellon Grant.
Writer's Group works
Opiate Orphans
TV Movie (Action, Teen, Coming of age, Teleplay (TV script), Drama, Family)
Log Line:
In the foothills of Appalachia, 15 year-old Calista is at a crossroads and must choose between following the path of her opiate-addicted parents or to break that cycle by finding love and taking a job cleaning houses in a university town.
Synopsis:
In the foothills of Appalachia, CALISTA COOKSON, age 15, is determined to get through high school and become an anesthesiologist but the world is stacked against her. With drug-addicted, swinging parents, she doesn’t stand much of a chance, nor does her younger brother GENT, 10. Her sister SUE, 16, has gone missing after their father came home so high he nearly killed them all, and would have succeeded if Calista hadn’t acted swiftly and hidden the gun. Calista’s family is known as “Cookson Trash” because they used to run a waste removal business, but they’ve lost that business and everything else because of drugs. They still own a small parcel of land and a herd of donkeys. They rent their donkeys out for “donkey basketball” – an event where kids and adults play basketball while riding donkeys. But the donkey business has no profit margin now that they don’t own enough land to grow hay. Calista’s grandmother, MAWMAW, a snake-handling evangelical, thinks the devil’s taken hold of their family and the holy spirit will save them when nothing else can. Calista worries that if her parents go to jail and they lose their house, she and Gent will have to live under Mawmaw’s roof. Calista has a plan. She works at Dairy Queen, saving up for college. Once she gets her degree, she’ll get a good job and buy back the land they lost. She hides her earnings in a special box where her parents can’t find it. Calista’s in love with the non-binary MADISON who lives in a strict Christian home, but often turns to her ex-boyfriend RUTTER for rides back home from work. He doesn’t give her rides for free and forces her to steal from Walmart in exchange. She likes to steal a gift for Gent while she’s at it. While working the cash register at Dairy Queen, DAISY, 34, asks Calista if she’d like to work for her house-cleaning business. Calista turns her down. Daisy’s from the big city and intimidates her. Besides, she likes being a cashier and doing math in her head whenever she can. One night after Calista has tucked Gent into bed, her parents arrive home, partying with their swinger friends. She and Gent flee and call on Rutter to help their escape. Madison finds out and is heartbroken, thinking Calista has gotten together with Rutter. The next day, Calista breaks down at school, but can’t confide in the school therapist without indicting her parents. If only her big sister Sue was here to help! Calista returns home to find their donkey herd being loaded onto a trailer, sold by her parents for another drug spree. She sneaks her favorite donkey CHOO CHOO off the property and hides him in an abandoned paddock in the woods where she secretly visits him. Coming down from their next high, her parents show up at the Dairy Queen and demand Calista hand over her stash of money to save the farm. Calista distrusts them, grabs Jimmy’s gun and aims it on them until the police arrive. Jimmy offers her a ride home on his motorcycle. On the way home, the motorcycle skids on gravel. They fly through the air and Jimmy’s head hits a rock and it kills him. Her parents in jail, her boss dead, Calista calls up Daisy and gets hired to clean houses in the university town. A whole new world opens to her. Under the mentorship of clever Daisy, Calista works inside houses of professors, professionals, and local celebrities, where she encounters different races, religions, and philosophical approaches to life. Calista witnesses the hypocrisy in how “the other half” lives, but gains a broader perspective that builds her toolkit to navigate, pivot and transcend the challenges in her own home life. Every now and then she’s tempted to steal something romantic to give to Madison or a toy for Gent. Daisy keeps a keen eye. Calista’s figuring out her life, but there’s something missing. Her big sister Sue. Calista must find her missing sister who vanished without a trace. Calista fears she’s dead. But then a letter arrives. It’s from Sue and has no return address.
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