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Jersey Baptism is a tragicomedy that evokes the ecstatic highs of a young and adrift New York City couple's impromptu road trip to Mexico, and the eventual lows as it all comes crashing down to loneliness and heartbreak just outside the New York City limits. 

Sometime after moving to New York many years ago, I started feeling cynical about my financial stability, about the stagnation of my filmmaking career, and my romantic life. In an increasingly expensive city, I felt I was confronting harsh truths, and, in turn, my declining sanity that had me fantasizing over and over again about the idea of starting over someplace new in a way I think that Guy and Lucy are in Jersey Baptism. 

Guy and Lucy are embittered by the commodification of New York, now alienated and yearning for a sense of home and connection. It explores the spirit of youth, as well as their disillusionment, and the romanticized notion of running away from what you know, toward seemingly endless possibilities.

The theme of escape is a rich tapestry to explore through the film medium. Escape is a human behavior, something we toy with, execute or deeply fantasize about, for the right reasons or for all the wrong ones. Jersey Baptism observes the excitement of Guy and Lucy’s escape from their alienated lives in New York City, and depicts whether or not their fantasies of Mexico are convincing, delusional, or somewhere in between. The result I think is a ticking time bomb, an impulsive romance, a sticky love trap that suspends an exposé of self deception and delusion thinly veiled as wishful thinking.

The story picks up on two restless slackers, Guy and Lucy, and their exhilaration, driving uptown through Manhattan as they leave on a road trip to Mexico with their black cat Nori in the backseat. 

As they look out the window and drive past people and skyscrapers, they’re reminded of how disgusted they’ve become with their lives in New York, due to what they relay as a city that has pushed them out because of its hyper capitalist materialism. 

Their mutual dissatisfactions escalate their love and connection. This sets the stage for Guy to ask Lucy to turn their vacation into a permanent one. In their minds, a vision grows, where they send their thoughts to far off destinations. What do they have to lose? Can dropping everything and moving to Mexico prove to be the answer they’ve been searching for?

But when Lucy’s black cat Nori goes missing from the car, it sets into motion a chain of events that grinds the trip to a halt. 

Lucy goes searching for her cat and Guy goes searching for Lucy, forcing them apart, in the middle of the night, in an old, industrial New Jersey town, leading Guy and Lucy on a strange misadventure where private epiphanies force them to re-consider their plans. 

The world of the film is set in a large, fleeting, and temporary city, late in the night, evoking a sense of despair and loneliness- in monolithic financial city blocks, in tunnels, late night bars, and industrial landscapes.

The film is obsessed with odd strangers; the ones Guy and Lucy meet after hours, through brief encounters, in a desperate search for connection with anyone who will listen. Down and out strangers and washed up misfits roam bars, street corners, and alleyways, ready to impart their wisdom. 

It's a nocturnal meditation of their Beckettian humanity, who endulge in the mundane and aloof- whose stubborn desires for instant gratification veer them towards delayed gratification by existential forces tugging at their strings. Combine that with a melancholic visual feast, and touches of dark comedy, and you have what promises to be our most ambitious film to date.  

Joe Albino director

Joe Albino is an Italian/ Peruvian- American screenwriter/ director based in Brooklyn, NY. As of November 2023, his debut film, Fish For Sleep, which he wrote and directed,  is in post production, wrapping its sound design and music score. It's a film he's incredibly proud of, and is excited to share once it’s finished in February 2024.  For a private link and to learn more please visit joealbino.com/fishforsleep.

Joe wrote and will be directing his sophomore film, Jersey Baptism. The screenplay received positive attention as an official screenplay selection at the 2022 Hollyshorts Film Festival and 2022 Filmmatic Drama Screenplay Competition. He is now using this momentum to move Jersey Baptism into production.

When not writing and directing his own films, Joe has been a  gaffer and key grip across film, editorial, and commercial projects since 2013. Notable film/ tv credits include Saturday Night Live, Sound of Silence, Menudo: Forever. Commercial clients include T-Mobile, Brooks Brothers, Elf, Advil, Gucci, Revlon, Playstation, and many more. Visit joealbino.com to learn more. 

Named by Variety (alongside Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Mindy Kaling, Ryan Coogler, Beau Willimon, and Olivia Wilde) as one of “Hollywoodʼs New Leaders,” Carlberg is an Academy Award and Emmy Award winning film, television, new media, Broadway and Los Angeles stage producer. Andrew’s extensive credits include, but aren’t limited to, ABC’s Castle, DirecTV’s Full Circle, Broadway’s Romeo and Juliet and Side Show, Celebration Theatre's Ovation Award winning productions of The Boy from Oz, The Color Purple: The Musical, and Priscilla, Queen of the Desert, the worldwide hit improv-based show The Blind Date Project, the Neil LaBute penned feature films Some Girl(s) and Dirty Weekend, actress Jennifer Morrison’s feature directorial debut Sun Dogs (Netflix 2018), and the 2018 and 2021 Official Sundance Selection The Blazing World (short and feature).  

Notably, Carlberg was the producer of Skin, which won the 2019 Academy Award for Live Action Short Film.

Andrew Carlberg executive producer

Named by Variety (alongside Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Mindy Kaling, Ryan Coogler, Beau Willimon, and Olivia Wilde) as one of “Hollywoodʼs New Leaders,” Carlberg is an Academy Award and Emmy Award winning film, television, new media, Broadway and Los Angeles stage producer. Andrew’s extensive credits include ABC’s Castle, DirecTV’s Full Circle, Broadway’s Romeo and Juliet and Side Show, Celebration Theatre's Ovation Award winning productions of The Boy from Oz, The Color Purple: The Musical, and Priscilla, Queen of the Desert, the worldwide hit improv-based show The Blind Date Project, the Neil LaBute penned feature films Some Girl(s) and Dirty Weekend, actress Jennifer Morrison’s feature directorial debut Sun Dogs (Netflix 2018), and the 2018 and 2021 Official Sundance Selection The Blazing World (short and feature).  

Notably, Carlberg was the producer of Skin, which won the 2019 Academy Award for Live Action Short Film.

Additional feature credits include the romantic comedy Sister of the Groom (starring Alicia Silverstone and Tom Everett Scott, and released by Saban Films in December 2020) and the HBOMax drama The Fallout, which premiered at the 2021 SXSW Film Festival, and won the Grand Jury and Audience Award.  Select additional short films include Anna (which premiered in competition at the 72nd Cannes Film Festival), Feeling Through (which was nominated at the 93rd Academy Awards), Lalito 10 (which won a 2023 Emmy Award) and North Star (starring Colman Domingo, Laura Innes and Kevin Bacon; 27 festival wins).  Other recent feature films include Peace in the Valley (2022 Tribeca Film Festival premiere) and Mutt (2023 Sundance Film Festival and 2023 Berlinale International Film Festival).

Carlberg has sold projects to HBO, Netflix, CBS, DirecTV and more - and has an ambitious slate of film, television and theater projects in development.  Andrew is a graduate of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill with Shakespeare studies at Oxford University, a member of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences and the Producers Guild of America, an alum of Film Independent’s Fast Track Producing Fellowship and New York’s Independent Filmmaker Project, and an event producer for the I Have a Dream Foundation - Los Angeles and the National Breast Cancer Coalition.

Amanda Sarabia producer

Amanda Sarabia is a Mexican American producer who's made her mark in both the documentary and commercial realms. With more than half a decade of experience, Amanda has ventured into a diverse array of creative avenues, ranging from curating music videos to producing and directing indie features and commercials. She’s worked with companies such as PBS, Sundance, Investis Digital, Peacock, Magic Films and Latino Filmmakers Network. Amanda's passion lies in crafting narratives that resonate deeply, evoking heartfelt emotions while offering an invigorating new outlook.

Nathan Krauss cinematographer

Nathan Krauss lives in Brooklyn, NY and works as a DoP and Gaffer. He is a versatile, friendly and communicative cinematographer who can often be found smiling on a film set. With a decade of experience, Nathan specializes in narrative stortytelling and is also highly skilled in beauty lighting. Notable among his cinematography work is The Victorias (dir. Ethan Fuirst), a documentary jury prize winner at the 2022 Aspen Shortsfest and acquired by The New Yorker Magazine.Outside of work, Nathan enjoys playing board games and reading science fiction. He is passionate about creating awesome images and strives to participate in storytelling that is empathetic and inspiring.

To make Jersey Baptism, it will require a host of operating costs . From cast and crew wages to locations to equipment rentals. Below you'll learn about what each of these categories entails,  and why they're critical to the making of the film. 

Crew-- We need to pay our crew. To operate the production, we work with other artists and technicians to bring critical skillsets to the making of the film, and there are many. Departments such as production, camera, lighting, sound, and art need to know there collaborative efforts will be compensated. 

Cast-- As a director, I can't stress enough how important actors are to the success of any film. Yet, they're often the least compensated for it. There will be various analysis and techniques used in order to deepen the understanding of character. I nurture this process over an extended period of readings and rehearsals. Working with actors is one of the biggest reasons I come back to filmmaking. 

LOCATIONS/ TRANSPORTATION

In the film, a car drives from the outskirts of NYC, through a tunnel, finishing in New Jersey. A large portion of the film takes place inside of a car, and on the streets of New Jersey. This is cost-effective. However, there are other, key locations that we'll need to rent, like a bar, and a studio. A business needs to close in order to accomodate a film crew, and their loss of regular business during that time needs to be compensated.

EQUIPMENT RENTALS

No film is made without a camera, lenses, lights, and a microphone... and many other things. Equipment rentals can often seem a barrier to entry due to prohibitive costs for independent filmmakers. We have a collective of craftsmen and rental houses in the New York City area who own their own equipment that we have established relationships with. We'd like to work with them. Your contributions will help us do that.

WARDROBE/ SET DRESSING
The actor's will be able to delve deep into their characters, and add realism to their lives with the right wardrobe and set design.

POST PRODUCTION WAGES

Sound design, original musical score, VFX, and coloring, the final phase to the finished film!

CATERING AND CRAFTY

We'll have many people onset, which means many mouths to feed and caffeinate. This portion of the budget is dedicated to that.

INSURANCE

Hey, you never know. Proper film insurance will keep us protected in case something happens on set.

CONTINGENCY

Replace a broken glass on location? Someone's late to the van and needs an Uber? This budget covers the unknowns along the way.

HOW YOU CAN HELP

Our campaign has begun in February. Our goal is to be fully funded by April.

2024 will look incredibly busy for us once the film is green lit. There will be no time to waste. By the time we're done with our preparation,  and wrapped our 4 days of shooting on location in New York City and New Jersey, we jump right into post-production, and aim to finish the film by August of this year, just in time for major film festival submissions.

Please remember that your donation is tax- deductible since you are donating through our fiscal sponsor, Fractured Atlas, who is a non- profit 501(c)(3). Also remember there're many giving levels, each with their distinct benefits/ rewards. These benefits give you access to things like early screeners, parties, premieres, photographs, merchandise, and virtual/ in-person Q & A's with us, the filmmakers. Read through our giving levels to learn more. 

NOTE: Rewards are purely optional. If you'd prefer to to give another amount, then simply hit the DONATE button to the right, and indicate how much you'd like to donate.

Jersey Baptism is a sponsored project of Fractured Atlas, a non-profit arts service organization. Contributions for the charitable purposes of Jersey Baptism must be made payable to “Fractured Atlas” only and are tax-deductible to the extent permitted by law.
 
If you'd like to help us spread the word, send this page via e-mail to your friends, and connect with us on Instagram, Linkedin, and IMDB.

There are updates to follow in the upcoming campaigning months! Sign up for our newsletter at joealbino.com to keep in the loop on Jersey Baptism and future filmmaking endeavors.

If you have creative solutions to any of our budget needs, we want to hear about it. Be sure to reach out to Joe at joe@joealbino.com and Amanda at amanda.sarabia@gmail.com to let us know what you're thinking.

Your generous support is not only vital to bringing Jersey Baptism to the screen. It's advocating for us as filmmakers and artists, and grants us access to all the costly machinery of filmmaking. Thank you for helping us push the boundaries towards our most ambitious film project to date.