After being run over and dragged 30 feet by an SUV in 2019, award-winning writer/director Kelsey Bollig of The Fourth Wall (2020) and Asking For A Friend (2019) finally has the strength to share her experience on the silver screen with a stellar team of all-female producers.
THE ACCIDENT
On June 17th, 2019 award-winning writer/director of Asking For A Friend (2019) and The Fourth Wall (2020), Kelsey Bollig, was walking home from the grocery store. 3 steps into the intersection, Bollig suddenly found herself bouncing off the hood of a white SUV going 30 mps, before feeling the entire weight of the car go over her body. She passed out as she was dragged along for an additional 30 ft before the driver stepped on the brakes.
The accident nearly took Bollig’s life and left her with 30 shattered bones, two punctured lungs, lacerated spleen and liver, and tore the skin from her entire left arm. She spent over a month in her hospital bed and the next 2 years of her life rehabilitating body and her spirit.
After 2 years of tedious, painful recovery where she often felt like giving up, Kelsey Bollig is finally ready to share the story she’s been the most fearful to tell; the experience that almost took her life – in more ways than one.
BRINGING THE STORY TO THE SILVER SCREEN
After a successful run of The Fourth Wall (2020, starring Lizzie Brocheré, Robi Schinasi, Jean-Marc Barr, and Victoria Lacoste), which thus far has been nominated for over 17 awards and won 8 awards, including the Best Horror Short at the Academy Award Qualifying Hollyshorts and just wrapped a month-long showing on Shudder as part of the exclusive Etheria Film Festival, Bollig has teamed up with her co-producer Tienlyn Jacobson to tell – not the tale of her near death experience, but the excruciating story of her survival.
“Along the way, I learned that somewhere in me there is a fighter. And that fighter scratched and clawed at every obstacle in its way in with the goal to win my life back.”
– Kelsey Bollig
Not just a creative partner, Kickstart My Heart co-producer Tienlyn Jacobson is also Bollig’s emergency contact.
Nearly 9 months pregnant, she immediately drove from Palm Springs and found Bollig, barely conscious from the pain, in an LA Emergency Room 2 hours later.
The hardest part to recovery is often invisible. Kickstart My Heart explores the greater challenges of the fight for survival, as well as questions the definition of survival itself. It speaks to deeper struggles that extend beyond the physical to the near intangible.
SYNOPSIS:
After a violent accident, Lilly wakes to find herself having barely escaped the steel grip of death, only to discover the fight has just begun. After a traumatic discovery, Lilly battles her greatest demons with the help of her little brother Richie.
Kickstart My Heart is a surrealist exploration of what it is like to be faced with life and death – or worse – somewhere in between. It is the story about what could happen to any of us if we succumbed to our greatest enemy – the one that lives inside of us.
“THE SILENCING” CYBILL LUI JOINS WOMEN-LED TEAM AS PRODUCER
Cybill Lui is also joining the duo as the short film’s producer. Lui most recently produced The Silencing, Robin Pront’s thriller starring Nikolaj Coster-Waldau (Game of Thrones), Annabelle Wallis (Peaky Blinders) and Hero Fiennes Tiffin (After) directed by Robin Pront (The Ardennes).
Indiewire called it a “breakout success” and Variety reported the “hit” as the top grossing new film release with the highest per-screen average playing in 79 theaters in the U.S. and was the #1 rental for weeks and continued topping the charts two months into its domestic release.
Cybill has previously produced two films supporting first-time female directors: upcoming sci-fi thriller WARNING (Alex Pettyfer, Alice Eve, Annabelle Wallis, Kylie Bunbury, Patrick Schwarzenegger, Rupert Everett, Thomas Jane and Tomasz Kot), and AKONI, written/directed/produced by and starring Genna Chanelle Hayes.
WOMEN AT THE FOREFRONT
“Kickstart My Heart” is driven by a team of women, placing women both in front of and behind the camera in a high-octane, action horror – a genre most dominated by men. This film will contain brutal hand to hand combat as seen in films like Atomic Blonde and quick stylized fighting as seen in films like The Raid.
CROWDFUNDING
The team has already privately raised 25k and is aiming to raise another 25k by September 25th, 2021 via Seed&Spark. With incentives that range from personalized thank you’s to real estate in the film credits, the team hopes to achieve fair pay for the crew and high-quality special effects with the second round of funding.
Contribute to phase 2 funding, help spread the word, and learn more about the project here:
haddonfieldhorror.com 
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