Aleah Zimmer as Kim in I Never Will (ROW 211 FILMS, 2017).
The I Never trilogy is an anthology of ghost stories exploring themes of heartbreak, infidelity, suicide, and the supernatural. Filmed over the course of two years and edited over the course of several more, it was one of my very first and most ambitious film projects.
I am so excited that, for the first time ever, all three films will be publicly shown! What’s more, they will be receiving a screening at the Portland Art Museum on October 24th!
The screening is being presented by the Northwest Film Center, a resource for filmmakers and media artists in the Pacific Northwest, as part of their Northwest Tracking program—a spotlight series on various filmmakers who live in Oregon and surrounding areas.
All three films in the I Never Trilogy are loosely based (and I do mean loosely) on Japanese ghost stories as recounted by early 1900s European folklorist Lafcadio Hearn. The films nod to the cultural significance of the source material while moving the action to the modern-day Pacific Northwest.
The films were co-directed (and mostly filmed and crewed by) Rory Owens and had Angelica Owens and Daniel Rester as producers. This collaboration was actually one of the reasons we started our production company, ROW 211 FILMS, and went on to make our first feature film, Dan Rester’s Emma Was Here (currently in post-production).
The trilogy kicks off with I Never Can (2015), a 7-minute short that introduces viewers to Jenny, (played by yours truly), a woman scorned by her unfaithful partner, Matt (Jon Cates), who resorts to desperate measures.
The second film, I Never Will (2017) finds Matt’s new lover, Kim, (Aleah Zimmer) haunted by the consequences of his past actions with Jenny.
Finally, in I Never Did (2019), the trilogy comes to its haunting conclusion as Matt comes face to face with his own personal demons and learns that his friend Sean (Connor Chaney) has been hiding some important information from him.
October 24th mark one of the first-ever public screenings of the final film, which has not yet been released to the public. It will be a seriously huge event for me to see the culmination of years and years of work by me and my awesome collaborators who joined me on the journey. I hope you’ll join me on this big step of the journey! I’ll be there at the Portland Art Museum for a Q&A and would love to say hi!
Tickets are $10 General Admission. Get tickets here.