"Pruning" is a short film co-created by Anto Astudillo and Kelley Van Dilla.

Anto Astudillo and Kelley Van Dilla "Bike Scene" (Photo by Ari Smith)

Dear friends, supporters, artists and film community!

October is here and with the arrival of the 2022 Fall season I want to share our progress in making "Pruning" a short narrative film about transitioning, caring for ourselves, each other and the world around us.

After raising a third of our GoFund Me fundraiser campaign, (yay!) my collaborator Kelley Van Dilla and I initiated the production stage of our project "Pruning" the first week of September!

We found an amazing crew of young and talented artists (full list below) and invited Chilean Arpillera artist Silvia Fernandez-Stein to play one of the main roles in the film.

Thanks to your amazing support we were able to compensate our crew, feed them during the days of filming and rent the equipment we needed for the film, among other expenses.

In October, we are heading to the second stage of production. We ask you as a community to please help us reach our goal to finish production and begin our post-production process!

You can have a direct impact by donating or sharing this campaign with others.

Here are some images of the production of Pruning!

Pruning crew with Silvia Fernandez-Stein (Photos by Ari Smith)

Anto Astudillo as Polo, "Becoming a Plant" dream sequence (Photos by Ari Smith and Ashika Kuruvilla)

Pruning cast+crew (Anto, Kelley Van Dilla, Ned Gaynor, Iman "King" Carter and Vander) filming apartment sequences (Photos by Ashika Kuruvilla and Ari Smith)

Here is our team!

Pruning Crew:

Directors-Writers: Kelley Van Dilla and Anto Astudillo

Camera-DP: Ned Gaynor

Sound and AC: Ashika Kuruvilla

Sound, lighting & grip: Vander

Costume sculptor & Special effects artist: Annie Temmink

Make-up Artist: Julia Morgan Fox

PA & Boom Op: Iman "King" Carter

PA & BTS: Ari Smith

PA & Kraft Services: Kendall Burger

Pre-production coordinator and storyboard: Lupe Campos

Pruning Cast:

Anto Astudillo

Silvia Fernandez-Stein

Kelley Van Dilla

Mecha

Pruning crew filming dream and garden sequence (Photos by Ari Smith)

As a way to express our immense gratitude, we will be giving donors various shout-outs, credits and behind the scene content, corresponding with donation amounts. Below is a description of each donation’s paired gift (to acknowledge the importance of their support)

Donation of $0-50: Shout out on social media 
Donation of $50 or more: Special thanks on credits of the film 
Donation of $100 or more: Behind-the-scenes content
Donation of $250 or more: Behind-the-scenes content + Invitation to Private Virtual PreRelease Party
Donation of $750 or more: Associate Producer credits 
Donation of $1500 or more: Producer credits
Donation of $4000 or more: Executive Producer credits

Hi, this is Anto. I have created this Newsletter with much love and dedication as a way to keep you in the loop about events I am a part of. As independent artists we often do this work without sustainable financial support. I appreciate you taking the time to open this email, read through, support by coming to the events and share with others! You can also donate to my film with Kelley!