RICHA RUDOLA - THE SEAL

Receiving post-production sound services courtesy of Heard City in the fourth round of Future of Film is Female funding round (March 2019).

About the film: THE SEAL is a psychological thriller about a woman’s journey of healing from trauma. It’s about the battle between the mind, which will go to any lengths to protect itself, and the body that remembers the abuse. Once abuse has occurred, how does one heal from it? Is recovery even possible?

The film's protagonist is Sheetal whose name is an anagram of the film's title. Unaware of her PTSD, Sheetal has spent her life being unkind to herself and running away from painful memories. With the arrival of the sealed package, the seal in Sheetal’s mind gives way to reveal what lay hidden underneath. Her imaginary childhood friend and a haunting homeless woman seem to point her to the truth Sheetal doesn’t want to acknowledge.

About the filmmaker: Richa is an award-winning NYC-based filmmaker. Films were not a big part of Richa’s childhood growing up in India, but it wasn’t until pursuing a statistics graduate degree in the U.S that she discovered independent and foreign cinema and fell in love with the medium. Her first short film, TAAZA KHOON (FRESH BLOOD), screened at Nashville Film Festival and won 7 awards across 27 film festivals eventually picking up distribution by Shorts TV India. She has been selected by 2019 Visible Poetry Project to develop an original poem into a short film, and is completing her second short film THE SEAL for which she's thrilled to receive the Future of Film is Female grant.

Richa’s scripts have been shortlisted for Oscar-qualifying festivals such as HollyShorts Film Festival, Nashville Film Festival and received accolades from ScreenCraft Film Fund, Shore Scripts Film Fund, and Ocktober Film Festival. She was selected as 1 of 50 film directors from across the world for the Shore Scripts' Directors Roster. Her film writings have appeared on Static Mass Emporium, a UK-based independent film publication.

Richa is a strong proponent for increasing diversity in storytelling and serves as the Vice President of Development for NYC Women Filmmakers Inc, a non-profit organization dedicated to supporting women in film.

Twitter: @richarudola
Instagram: @richarudola
Website: http://richarudola.com/