Dear Leina....

Dear Leina , is a short film musical about re-discovering your passion after it’s been lost for a long time.

After an argument with her older sister, a 12-year-old girl decides to write a letter to her future self, describing what she wishes her life to be like when she grows up. 20 years later, she goes back to her old room and while she’s looking through her belongings she finds the letter she wrote when she was 12. Her emotional journey as she is reading the letter is translated into a singing and dancing performance.

Why we're so passionate about this film?

We believe that everyone at some point in their life finds something they feel passionate about, but not everyone has the support or confidence to pursue it. And through this film we wanted to show everyone that it is never too late to re-discover that one thing that makes you happy. For us, university has been the place where we were able to explore and experiment, we found that our passion within films was merging music and imagery.

Because of the collaborative element within a musical, we were incredibly lucky to be able to work with our amazing Music department, who helped us source the great musicians and the facilities that helped create the song. So it goes without mentioning that this musicals has paved the way for the musicians, the brilliant cast and even the crew to have the opportunity to showcase their talents.

WHo are we?

We are a London based group of Filmmaking students and this project is for our Final Graduation Film.

We have an amazing crew on board to make this film a reality, and we are making it extra special by adding the musical element. Among our amazing crew, we have an incredibly talented composer who’s created a beautiful song, a choreographer who got inspired by it and created a stunning dance number and the fantastic cast who we can’t wait to start working with.

But to be able to tell Leina’s story, and make this amazing project a reality we need your help.

Meet the crew

Rain Okpamen- Co-Director & Producer

Spanish filmmaker with an inspiring passion for musicals that merges from her background on performing arts music and dance. Her work as producer and director on her previous work, has helped her develop her skills and paved the way for her to create the story of Leina.

Her latest musical was screen at the British Film Institute:

Link: https://vimeo.com/166940167

Mandy Neaknejad- Co-Director

Mandy is a passionate filmmaker, who has been involved in musical productions as well as narrative filmmaking. Her fictional narrative ’Still Here’ was screen at the British Film Institute, this as well as collaborating with Rain in past projects has given her the confidence to be able to finally tell Leina’s story which has been waiting so long to be told.

Cemile Zeynep Eryılmaz

Zeynep is an emerging choreographer and cinematographer particularly interested in the human body, motion and landscape. She’s studied ballet since she was six and she is currently a ballet-master.

How your support will help us?

• MAKING THE SET: If we reach £250 we’ll be able to create Leina’s room and house.

• LOCATION: If we reach £500 we’ll be able to hire a dance studio to film the choreography.

• FEEDING THE CREW: People cannot work when they’re hungry! To have our filmmakers, cast and crew in full capacity let’s reach £750.

• HOW CAN WE GET THERE? We have a lot of equipment and people to take to different locations, so if we reach £850 we can transport cast, crew and equipment to locations.

• ACTORS: We have two incredibly talented actresses. Brooke Armstrong 11-year-old girl who can act, sing and has been dancing ballet since she was 4. And Faye Steiger amazingly talented actress who has a beautiful and powerful voice that you don’t want to miss!!

They are our Leinas and if we reach £1815 we’ll be able to pay them a reasonable fee.

Find us here

Here is our Instagram, Twitter and Facebook! We'll be using our social media platforms to give you regular updates on how the film is coming along. So please Like, Follow and stay tuned for more news!

Help us succeed!

Check out our list of rewards for all the lovely people supporting our project, I'm sure there's something you're bound to like!

This is an independent student film and any and all help will go a long way. Can't donate? No problem just give us a shoutout on any of the social media platform listed above. So please help us get our project noticed!

Thank you!