We shot SAINT MARY on Easter weekend – and now, we MAKE this film. Read on for gratitude, celebration, and next steps! ✨
Patron Saints of SAINT MARY —
Our heads are still spinning but it’s mostly with the pinch-me feeling of “Did that really happen?”
And the answer is yes.
Yes, we raised $23,500 dollars in one month, meeting our pre-production target and fully funding our time on set — thanks to all of you and your great generosity.
Yes, we stretched every dollar of that raise, and through community and connection and the goodwill of some truly incredible people, were able to hire and pay a team of creatives whose caliber far exceeded our micro-budget.
Yes, we shot the film, on three bright cold days over Easter weekend, in a swirl of divine synchronicities — shooting off Church Ave in Brooklyn and at Saint Peter's Church in Chelsea — and in spite of the inevitable timing setbacks and on-the-fly snafus that make the path of filmmaking never run smooth, we got every shot we needed to tell this story.
Yes, we are forever indebted to the skill and tenacity of our crew and creative team: producers Kristin Krall and Michaela Morton, our DP Cody Blevins and 1st AC Jaime Medrano, our AD Dylan Blue, our Intimacy Coordinator Erica Gould, gaffer Noah Engle and his team, Carter Hoffman and Mallory Holst, our sound mixer Alan Kudan, our art director Elizabeth Jones and production designer Aliyah Pair, and our HMU Alexandra Baranoff, as well as our truly tireless (volunteer!) Production Assistants: Jake Seres, Melissa Wolff, Delaney Keith, and Audrey Rose Blaze, who were in early and out late and handled all the nitty-gritty details with can-do attitudes.
Yes, we continue to thrill at the talent of our cast: Jordan Dean, Jason Furlani, and Erin Germaine Mahoney, who (Michaela is writing this, so she’s allowed to say), is as luminous onscreen as she is skilled on the page. Special thanks to Anwar Wolf as a daredevil biker who shot through the set in a blaze of energy, and the extras who brought both reverence and patience to our Ash Wednesday scene.
And yes, yes, yes: there is more to come!
Once the raw footage is in the can, the instrumental post-production phase begins. Movies are made in the editing room, and we have an incredible editor standing by — we’ll be announcing her soon. Once the picture is locked, we’ll hire our colorist, get to work with our composer (the inimitable Jim Farmer) and begin line up festival submissions for the finished film.
All of this takes money, so here’s where phase two of our fundraising begins.
Our minimum goal is to hit our full fundraising target of $30,000 — that’s just $6,500 to go — and have picture locked by June 1st. Your donations and signal boosting will help us towards this goal — so please, if you believe in this project, share widely.
If we can raise $10,000, we’ll not only be able to pay our post-production team (our editor, our colorist, audio mixer, etc.), to fund festival submissions, and to cover eventual festival travel — but also, to provide deferred pay to key members of our creative team who’ve so far volunteered their time in this process.
And from there, our joy will be to celebrate and share this film with you and on the festival circuit!
Thank you Patron Saints – we’re so grateful for all you’ve done and all you’re doing, to make this film with us.
xx
Erin, Michaela, and Kristin
The Producers of SAINT MARY
8 hours from now, our SAINT MARY shoot begins — thanks to you, Patron Saints! ✨
Dear Patron Saints –
We're overwhelmed with gratitude, excitement, and night-before nerves, because:
We are shooting SAINT MARY this weekend — Easter weekend.
We're going to set in 8 hours.
Because of you, our patron saints, we've raised $23,507.
We're able to make this film, and we're doing it the way you've done it with us; through generosity and creativity; gifts of money, resources, skills, and time; with trust and with delight.
We have better equipment than we should be able to afford, thanks to the deep relationships and tremendous tenacity of our EP/line producer Kristin Krall.
We have more perfect locations than we could have dreamed, thanks to the generosity of our dear friend Sarah Vitti and St. Peter's Church in Chelsea.
We have incredible PAs volunteering their labor and extras coming to set to support us in telling this story.
And we have all of you — our angels, to whom we feel such abiding gratitude. This weekend, we're going to make the film we've been dreaming of making, and it's because of you.
We'll see you on the other side — but for tonight: thank you, thank you, thank you.
xx Erin, Michaela, Kristin &
The Team of SAINT MARY
We've raised $18,700 for SAINT MARY with one week + $6,300 to go – read on for an ask and a special opportunity! ✨
Dear Patron Saints –
THANK YOU to all who came out to last Friday's Garden Krall Unplugged in support of SAINT MARY; not only did we have an amazing night with all of you, but through your generous participation, we raised $1200 towards our film!
Including donations pledged outside of Fractured Atlas, we're now up to $18,700 — every dollar representing the energy and generosity of this community and the appetite for this story.
It's thrilling.
And! We need$25,000 to get to set and to pay our people well there.
That's $6,300 more, and because of time needed to draw funds and clarity needed to hire folks for a top-of-April shoot, we need to raise that money by the end of this week. So if you've been waiting for a sign to contribute: this is it.
And if you need a little more specificity, we've got an ask and an opportunity:
The ask: We are looking for 1-3 more producer-level supporters to come on with SAINT MARY this week (and to be credited for their contribution as we take this story from page to screen). If you know someone for whom this project would spark, reach out to them. If this is you, reach out to us! We can provide standard investor contracts (with tax benefits) and what we hope will be an unusually joyful creative partnership.
The opportunity: We're offering a silent auction for a private film workshop with our dear friend, award-winning indie film and TV Director Katina Medina Mora (Xo, Kitty; Emily in Paris; The Summer I Turned Pretty).This one-on-one virtual session will be tailored to your specific creative focus, and proceeds will go directly to production of SAINT MARY. You can learn more and BID HERE —and please, share widely with anyone who'd enjoy this unique opportunity!
As you bid, contribute, show out, signal boost, and share, you are making this story a reality, step into the unknown by step into the unknown (just like our lead character!) — and we are sharing all our gratitude with you as you show us the way forward, together.
xx Erin, Michaela, Kristin &
The Team of SAINT MARY
We're halfway to our minimum raise for SAINT MARY! Thank you and — a special invitation ✨
Dear Patron Saints –
This is our inaugural update for our wonderful funders and in-kind gifters who have contributed to SAINT MARY. Because of you, in just under two weeks, we have raised over $14,000 of our $30,000 production goal (reflecting a couple of generous outside gifts not shown on Fractured Atlas) — almost halfway there!
If we can match pace with these first two weeks, we can make it, and YOU are the angels who've given us that confidence and that gift. Speaking of gifts, in these two weeks we've also:
- Secured our primary location for the film (through the generosity of our dear friend Sarah Vitti, whose home we'll be shooting in)
- Held chemistry reads and will soon be announcing cast (with special thanks to Thea Brooks who brought some amazing actors into our field of view)
- Continued to crew up — attaching Assistant Director Dylan Blue and Intimacy Coordinator Erica Gould, alongside DP Cody Blevins, Director Erin Germaine Mahoney and Producers Kristin Krall and Michaela Morton
- Brought on three new producers — all incredible female filmmakers in their own right: Associate Producers Bonnie Calvin and Michelle Draper, and Executive Producer Danielle Lurie
AND
- Finalized our lineup for The Garden Krall Unplugged: An Evening in Support of Saint Mary & Indie Film — which you're all invited to, this Friday March 20th at Rossi's in Brooklyn. The minimum suggested ticket donation is $25, with all proceeds going directly to production of SAINT MARY; we'll have acoustic music, comedy, storytelling, raffles, film teasers, and more.
Our sights are set on shooting by Easter weekend, less than three weeks away,and we need another $12,000 to reach our $25,000 minimum to go to set — which could mean bringing on just two more outside EPs and two more APs who have a spark with this story and believe in its long-term potential as a series, or could mean drawing in a wide net of small contributions.
So our biggest ask is: if you have any friends you think would like to know about this project, and contribute to it becoming a reality, please send them to tinyurl.com/saintmaryfilm and bring them to the Garden Krall — and if this project resonates, encourage them to give! It's tax season, and all donations made through Fractured Atlas are deductible.
Our bold foray with this world and story is just beginning and we're so grateful to you for being patron saints and angels of this project. So much love and gratitude!
xx Erin, Michaela, Kristin &
The Team of SAINT MARY
SAINT MARY: A FILM BY ERIN GERMAINE MAHONEY
SAINT MARY is a psychological shortabout a celibate Christian woman who impulsively propositions a stranger in Central Park — catalyzing a sexual and spiritual reckoning.
Written, directed by, and starring Erin Germaine Mahoney, SAINT MARY is inspired by true stories of late bloomers, spiritual sensualists, and women tangling with their deepest — and often, their most conflicting — desires. The film will be both a stand-alone project for film festivals as well as proof of concept for a television series (imagine an exvangelical Fleabag).
SAINT MARY : A FILM BY ERIN GERMAINE MAHONEY
SAINT MARY was sparked by writer/director Erin's personal story of navigating sexuality after spending the first decade of her adulthood committed to Christian celibacy.
It's a deeply personal project, inspired by the confusion and dysphoria of leaving purity culture and navigating the reality — the risky, erotic, destabilizing and conflicting reality – of sexual exploration in your 30s, and of trying on new identities before they're fully formed.
SAINT MARY : A FILM BY ERIN GERMAINE MAHONEY
SAINT MARY SAINT MARY SAINT MARY
is spiritual. is erotic. is troubling.
SAINT MARY is a coming-of-age-a-little-late story about the messiness of doing what we think we want to do. It's about taking risks, sometimes extreme ones, in the process of change. It's about sexuality and spirituality; about danger and desire; about bewilderment and becoming; about encountering a stranger, and about being strange to yourself. It's about how imagination meets reality on the path to liberation.
SAINT MARY : A FILM BY ERIN GERMAINE MAHONEY
While in development at the Actors Gym NY with Bobby Moresco (Co-Writer of Crash and Million Dollar Baby), where both Erin and our Creative Producer Michaela Morton are writing/acting members, we've seen how the script has resonated.
We are excited to make SAINT MARY with an incredible team, including the brilliant Kristin Krall as EP/Line Producer (Netflix, HBO, Universal TV/CBS, incl. FBI Most Wanted, The Punisher) and the visionary Cody Blevins of Omnipolitan Films as DP (The Fall of Diddy, Taste the Nation) .
SAINT MARY : A FILM BY ERIN GERMAINE MAHONEY
We’ll be shooting SAINT MARY over three days in late winter/early spring in Manhattan and Brooklyn. Our baseline budget of $30,000 comprises pay for cast and crew, equipment, insurance, craft services, logistics — all the nitty gritty – and our partnership with Fractured Atlas makes all donations tax-deductible!
We're doing our fundraising in a tight timeframe, targeting our shoot for last weekend of March. With this timeline, the fundraiser will stay live through production to give ample opportunity for folks to support the project as it evolves – and as the movie-making gods give us their own take on timing — but our intention is to raise our baseline budget by mid-March.
Funds raised beyond $30,000 will allow us to fully account for post-production, editorial, and festival submissions, alongside fair wages for cast and crew.
SAINT MARY : A FILM BY ERIN GERMAINE MAHONEY
SAINT MARY : A FILM BY ERIN GERMAINE MAHONEY
You can follow along on IG at @saintmaryfilm, where we'll be posting more about the project, including teasers, BTS, deeper dives into themes, tone, world, interviews with cast and creative, and invitations to special events with conversations on sexuality, spirituality, and creativity — and of course you can make your tax-deductible donation to the project here! We are so grateful for every gift.
SAINT MARY : A FILM BY ERIN GERMAINE MAHONEY | FILM STILLS BY CODY BLEVINS, 2026
Rewards
Kindling - Gifts of $25+
Donate $25.00 or more
Amount is fully tax-deductible.
Love, gratitude, and a shout out on our social media at @saintmaryfilm.
Inciting - Gifts of $50+
Donate $50.00 or more
Amount is fully tax-deductible.
All the above, plus access to special Close Friends stories at @saintmaryfilm.
Arousing - Gifts of $100+
Donate $100.00 or more
Amount over $10.00 is tax-deductible.
All the above, a Divine Delivery temporary tattoo, and a personalized thank you video from our creative team.
Exploring - Gifts of $500+
Donate $500.00 or more
Amount is fully tax-deductible.
All the above, a special behind-the-scenes photo carousel from set, and your name listed in the “Special Thanks” of our film credits!
Expanding - Gifts of $1000+
Donate $1,000.00 or more
Amount over $100.00 is tax-deductible.
All the above, a personalized film-themed playlist, and Erin will create a hand painted saint card of you – a patron saint of our project!
Awakening - Gifts of $1500+
Donate $1,500.00 or more
Amount is fully tax-deductible.
All the above, an early access screener of the film and Co-Producer credit on the film — for getting us a full 5%+ of the way to our big vision!
Transforming - Gifts of $2500+
Donate $2,500.00 or more
Amount is fully tax-deductible.
All the above and Producer credit on the film — you are an incredible almost 10%+ of our total budget!
Liberating - Gifts of $5000+
Donate $5,000.00 or more
Amount is fully tax-deductible.
All the above and Executive Producer credit on our film, to honor your instrumental role — more than 15% of our total budget! — in making it happen.
