MAGDALENA WAZ

WRITER + PRODUCER

MICAH PAISNER
WRITER + PRODUCER

ALICE SHINDELAR
DIRECTOR
a road movie
set in 2005
about teenage love
emo music
and dragging your
bestfriend across
the country
to chase down the wrong boy.
 LOGLINE

IN THE MIDDLE OF DETENTION, GRACE’S FIRST BOYFRIEND DROPS THE BOMBSHELL

THAT HIS FAMILY IS MOVING TO NEW ORLEANS THAT AFTERNOON.
SHE CONVINCES HER BEST FRIEND VICKY TO CHAUFFEUR HER
ACROSS THE COUNTRY TO GET HIM BACK.
 GRACE LEVINE

Grace Levine thinks the world of her boyfriend and her best friend, but what they
think is good for her isn’t always what she actually wants.

VICKY
Have you ever masturbated at
school?

GRACE
What? No, of course not. Who would
do that in a school? You’d probably
have to go to the bathroom to do
it? But a lot of the locks on the
stalls are broken and -

VICKY
Like I said, terrible liar.

CASTING INSPERATION
KIERNAN SHIPKA
MILLIE BOBBY BROWN
ELIZA SCANLEN
 VICKY FLORES

Vicky Flores is your classic mid-2000s emo girl. She talks a big game though she’s
always able to back it up. In spite of her tough exterior, she’ll go to the ends of the
Earth for her best friend Grace.

Vicky still has some sauce on her face, but Grace clearly isn’t telling
her.

VICKY
We should’ve gotten more of that food to go.

GRACE
Vick, we just ate like a full pig.

VICKY
Next time I’ll take two pigs then.
I don’t give a fuck.

CASTING INSPERATION
ZENDAYA
ROWAN BLANCHARD
JENNA ORTEGA
 GRACE + VICKY

VICKY GRACE
It’s fine. The sign said there’s A truck driving cannibal. Or a bear
24 hour security at this one. by the looks of this landscape.

GRACE
That sign is lying.
VICKY
Even if it is, it’s supposed
to scare away anyone who might
consider robbing us.
VICKY
If you make your truck driving
cannibal an alien, it’s basically
a perfect X-Files episode.
GRACE
I can’t sleep here.

GRACE VICKY
Or eating us? God, Gillian Anderson is cool. I
wish she was my mom.
VICKY
You serious? GRACE
That’s what you want to talk about
right now?
 KATHY + LAWRENCE XANDER IVAN + HELEN
GRACE’S PARENTS THE BOYFRIEND VICKY’S PARENTS
LAWRENCE
Is she here?

IVAN
GRACE Currently? No, she is not here.
Vicky slept over. We were watching
VICKY
this 80’s bondage porn my parents KATHY
Have you ever masturbated at school?
have. It’s pretty wild. Where is she?
GRACE
XANDER HELEN
What? No, of course not. Who would
I don’t like porn. It presents We cannot say. We were sworn to secrecy
do that in a school? You’d probably
unrealistic goals for sex. by the girls, and we will not break
have to go to the bathroom to do it?
But a lot of the locks on the stalls that oath.
GRACE
are broken and -
You’re saying you haven’t learned a Kathy is starting to get worked up.
thing or two from it?
VICKY
Like I said, terrible liar. IVAN
XANDER
We want to encourage growth, not
Those moves are all Xander, babe.
stunt it. You understand what I mean,
right, Lawrence?
 TAXIDERMY
T ER
MUSEUM OWNER GAS STATION
P I T M A S HIGHSCHOOL
BBQ ATTENDANT
SECURITY GUARD

MUCISIAN CAMEOS
 SYNOPSIS

In 2005, sixteen-year-old GRACE LEVINE has it all: a flip

phone, her best friend VICKY, her CDs, and XANDER, her
Back in the car, Grace has been slacking in her navigation
boyfriend, who drives her to school, blasting My Chemical
duties, and the girls are lost. Hitting a breaking point, Vicky
Romance and Fall Out Boy. Grace learns she’s failing Spanish
lashes out at Grace. The two stop at an internet cafe to
and soon after lands in detention with Xander. Inexplicably,
find directions on MapQuest and spend the next few hours
Xander uses the moment to reveal he’s leaving Chicago
in silence.
and moving to New Orleans with his family that very day.
Xander has known for weeks but chooses to keep the news
The girls crash at Vicky’s sister ERICA’S dorm. Vicky goes
to himself.
to a party and gets amateur hour drunk. Grace spies on
Xander’s Xanga and sees that he’s loving New Orleans.
Grace’s parents, LAWRENCE and KATHY, try to cheer her
Furious, Grace reunites with Vicky who tries to convince
up by giving the spiel about fleeting love. It’s easy for them
Grace that Xander isn’t worth the trouble. Impulsively, she
to say because they’ve been together forever; they insist
kisses Grace who runs away confused.
their relationship started out rocky, too. This gives Grace a
crazy idea: if only Xander knew relationships can end and
The next morning, a hungover Vicky wakes to find Grace
begin again, he might come back! She decides she’ll drive
has left her phone and taken the car. Vicky and Erica have
to New Orleans with Vicky to fetch him. Vicky doesn’t
no choice but to go find her. Unsurprisingly, Grace is a
want to be Grace’s chauffeur and thinks Xander is a class-A
horrible driver and crashes the car directly into Xander’s
douchebag. Eventually, Vicky relents, and they hit the road.
parked car in New Orleans. Their reunion does not go as
planned. When Vicky and Erica arrive, Vicky apologizes for
The first big obstacle is figuring out where to sleep. They
kissing Grace. Vicky explains that it was out of fear that
settle on a rest area, but this scares Grace, who is convinced
Grace would leave her behind. Xander whines about Grace
there are bears nearby. She chugs hot chocolate to stay
“cheating,” and the girls band against him. Grace finally
awake. When she finally sleeps, she has an alarming dream
writes him off for good.
featuring an a cappella rendition of a My Chemical Romance
song and an elaborate dance number in the school cafeteria.
Before they return to Chicago, the girls stroll through New
The following day, Vicky hopes to extend their trip by
Orleans and come across Café Du Monde. They stuff their
stopping at a rogue taxidermy museum full of animals having
faces with beignets, knowing they’ll face any consequences
tea parties. Meanwhile, Lawrence and Kathy worry about
together.
Grace. They visit Vicky’s outlandish parents who refuse to
divulge the girls’ whereabouts.

It doesn’t matter who we are now or what decade we grew
up in, we were all teenagers once. For many of us, those
teenage years were a time when we made self-assured, poorly
researched opinions about people, school, and music, and
it was up to our friends to help us decide what we actually
believed and what was just talk.
“Alive With the Glory of Love” is a story about a deep
friendship between two girls as they test the boundaries of
their relationship and all the joys and dangers waiting for them
when they set off on a road trip alone for the very first time.
Without smartphones and GPS, how would two young girls
navigate this giant world?
Grace and Vicky are united in their quest to have an adventure
even though Vicky knows that the trip will be a failure; they
DIRECTOR’S STATEMENT
won’t be able to convince Grace’s ex-boyfriend Xander to take
As producers, we were drawn to telling a story about being
her back. But Vicky is also duty-bound to accompany her best
“emo” and all of the songs in that musical genre that helped
friend and protect her. These are two girls who are inseparable
us feel less misunderstood. Back then, and perhaps even now,
during the school day, but they’ve never been completely alone
girls were integral to the success of the biggest names in pop-
on an adventure this big before. By the end of the film, both
punk and often outnumbered the boys on street teams and
girls realize—as silly as it sounds—that friendship is the reward
message boards, but unfortunately, they were not as well-
for taking a risk and not the boy.
represented on the stage. We’re hoping to use this backdrop
to explore a story of two emo girls learning how to navigate
Structurally, the story is a traditional road trip film in the vein
an expanding world and getting to be the center of a narrative
of “Thelma and Louise.” In terms of tone, the balance of laughs
that sidelined them for so long.
and cathartic moments are inspired by movies like “Love,
Simon” and “Ghost World.” All of these stories showcase the
And after the challenge of producing a full-length, improvised
most frustrating and funny aspects of being a teenager. Ours
web series with hours worth of footage on a shoestring budget,
is a comedy with real life stakes, but it also asserts that both
we’re ready to move on to our first feature-length collaboration
boys and girls can have a good and often raucous time in their
with a director who shares our sensibilities.
early years.
 MAGDALENA WAZ
WRITER + PRODUCER
Magdalena Waz is from Krakow, Poland but grew up in Chicago.
She holds an MA in Creative Writing from Miami University in
Ohio. Her first novel, Return on Investment, won Fiction Attic
Press’ debut novel prize in 2016, and her prose has appeared in
New South, The Collagist, Necessary Fiction, and Threadcount.
Her writing focuses on themes of place and memory, especially
as they relate to the immigrant experience. She is the producer
of several short films as well as a co-creator of “My Astronaut,”
a web series about a woman who is desperate to get to Mars
and her hapless boyfriend who is desperate to stop her. She is
the former managing editor at Bushwick Daily and the current
fiction and non-fiction editor at Construction Magazine.
ALICE SHINDELAR
DIRECTOR
Alice Shindelar writes and directs film and virtual reality content.
Her work focuses on the intersection between women’s bodies and
culture and is informed by her experiences as a queer woman, sex-
educator, and activist. Her most recent project FOUR WALLS, a VR
documentary hosted by Rashida Jones about the lives of women
Syrian refugees, premiered at The Vanity Fair Summit and was
honored with a Webby. Her horror-comedy I WANT YOU INSIDE ME,
about a teenager who loses her boyfriend and her virginity in one
fell-orgasm, premiered at FantasticFest and was optioned by AMC’s
Shudder, and her original pilot SWEETLAND, about an OB-GYN who
cares for disenfranchised sex workers and transient men in the midst
of the North Dakota oil boom, was awarded the Columbia Bluelist.
She is the recipient of the Columbia Campbell Award, and the Jerome
Foundation Verve Grant. As Creative Director for YouVisit, Alice has
directed and produced VR content for brands such as The Weather
Channel, Swarovski, Renaissance Hotels and dozens of others. She
also works as Program Manager for the advocacy organization Film
Fatales. Alice lives in LA, grew-up in Minnesota and graduated from
Columbia University with an MFA in film directing.
MICAH PAISNER
WRITER + PRODUCER
Micah Paisner is a Los Angeles-based screenwriter from
Chicago and an alum of Second City’s sketch writing program.
He also has an MFA in Screenwriting from Columbia University.
His thesis film, “You, Me & Me,” screened at the Santa Fe and
Kansas City film festivals among others. His pilot scripts have
been finalists at the Oaxaca Film Festival and the New York
Screenplay Contest in addition to placing third at Cinequest.
Recently, he created the web series, “My Astronaut,” about a
woman who dreams of being on the first civilian rocket to Mars
while her hapless boyfriend schemes to keep her on Earth. The
first season features appearances by Scott Adsit, Sarah Stiles,
and Pia Glenn. Micah currently works in TV development. He has
an undying love for basketball, and if you tell him that LeBron
James is better than Michael Jordan, he will not be your friend.
 BIT.LY/AWTGOLROADTRIPMIX
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