Baltica
Synopsis
Fresh from an unflinching, award-winning film about the drug culture in Baltimore, a crew of filmmakers find and rescue an extremely dangerous predator: an undying, beautiful young woman who has forgotten everything except the need to hunt and kill. What begins as an objective documentation of her violent world becomes a gradual rehabilitation, as the creature slowly remembers what it was like to be human.
But her humanity comes at a terrible price: as the filmmakers capture murder after murder, they struggle with the loss of their own humanity, and inadvertently discover their own true natures. The creature's path to redemption takes an even darker turn when she begins to remember a past filled with madness and pain, and finds herself resenting the crew's efforts...mercilessly.
Character breakdowns
The male cameraman, STEVEN, is a young, insanely talented camera/film auteur, cocky but quite warm and very charming. He and the female cameraman, Del, share a good friendship highlighted by bouts of intellectual one-upmanship. They argue constantly and bitterly, but with style and finesse.
The female cameraman, DEL (short for Delacroix), is a strong, beautiful, and sharp-witted filmmaker. Her role within the film crew is, essentially, leader; while the director has his vision and the male cameraman has artistic talent, Del is the production head and the one who gets things done.
The director, NICHOLAS, is a brilliant intellectual, which makes him fascinating and tedious at the same time. His scope of vision is epic, and he has difficulty explaining himself to others sometimes, but his awards speak for themselves. It is his insight into the nature of the creature that begins this Quixotic documentation.
The CREATURE used to be human, that much is apparent. Now she consists of nothing more than the most basic animal drives, and a certain vicious nature. She needs warmth to survive, and kills to feed on flesh and blood. She's slipped through the cracks of humanity, honing her murderous skills, becoming a graceful killing machine. But one cold and rainy night she makes a slight mistake, and is left for dead...this is where our story begins.
As the creature and her murders begin to dehumanize the leads, the characters gradually revert back to their old (negative) qualities...qualities they'd thought long dead and buried. Steven reverts to a walking Y chromosome, sexual, cunning and devious, a selfish user of woman...everything he hated about himself in high school and college. Del finds herself feeling vulnerable, insecure, less assertive. Years ago she succumbed to heroin addiction, and in the face of this violence and pain begins to yearn for respite, that old nihilistic detachment of drug use. Nicholas becomes caught up in existential philosophy and minutia, losing touch with the very real and practical world.
Tone
I call Baltica a murder parable, but it really explores our deepest and most basic human nature: our tendency towards redemption, and, paradoxically, how we really can't change who we are. Here's an illuminating parable:
A holy man is sitting by a river into which a scorpion falls. Seeing the creature thrash helplessly in the water, the holy man reaches down and scoops it up, placing it safely on the ground; and as he does this, the scorpion stings him. Again, the scorpion falls into the water; and again, the holy man rescues him and is stung for his trouble. Yet a third time the scorpion falls into the water and is saved by the holy man; and yet a third time the scorpion stings him.
Standing nearby is a man who has been observing this indignantly. He approaches the holy man and angrily asks, "Why do you keep rescuing a scorpion that keeps stinging you?"
The holy man gently shrugs. "It is a scorpion's dharma to sting," he says simply, "just as it is a human being's dharma to help a creature in need."
Production
Shooting dates will be 30 consecutive days in 2004, in and around the DC/Baltimore area. We plan to film with the new JVC high definition camera, the GR-HD1. Our ideal budget will be between $150,000 - 200,000, and we will be aggressively working towards a theatrical release. If you would like to be a part of the Baltica Team, or would like investment information, contact me at byroniceye@byroniceye.com...professional inquiries only, please.
Trailer cast
Wendy Donigian as the creature
Kari Ginsburg as Del
Maxwell Hessman as Nicholas
Christopher Shmuck as Steven
Tiffany Grady as first victimand as the gothic thugs:
John Patrick Barry
Gabby Peer
Elizabeth Felling
Ryan Link
Trenton Higareda
Jessica Mulligan
Trailer credits
Directed & Edited by Martin Higareda
Produced by Martin Higareda and Wendy Donigian
Written by Martin Higareda
Production assistant: Nikki Maylett
Hair/Make-up: Jessica Mulligan
Production
Filmed with the Canon XL1-s; shot on location in Baltimore, Bethesda, and Silver Spring, MD