HEY HEY
Feature Film Narrative

Project Type: Feature Film Narrative
Project Status: Pre-Production
Writer and Director: Courtney Romano
Producers: Sara Conte, Allison Koehler, and M. Akram Shibly

LOGLINE

An optimistic but friendless alien comes to earth to make a documentary about the goodness of humanity, but he must face the possibility his movie won’t have a happy ending.

SYNOPSIS

Hey, an alien, has arrived on earth, ‘90s camcorder in hand, to make a documentary about humans. Most aliens loathe humans, but not Hey. So he made a bet with the jerks back home that if he made a doc about humanity, they would love humans too. If he loses the bet, he’ll be banished to the Ultra Deep Field (13 billion light years away)...

Hey meets Ruth, a disgruntled ER nurse, on a park bench and tries to film her, but she’s suspicious and cynical, and harbors a deep unsayable sadness. During their stand off, Ruth reveals she's being hounded by her neighbor who won’t stop texting her. Hey has found his story. He’s going to fix Ruth’s sadness by fixing her neighbor. He goes to track him down.

Hey runs a series of human gauntlets. He tracks down Ruth’s neighbor, a toxic but trying line cook, with sensitivity issues, the guy’s ex-wife, a receptionist with an anger problem, a telemarketer desperate for validation, and a handyman father whose only relief is Wednesday night tacos.

Without any usable footage of good and happy humans, Hey runs into Ruth again on the beach where he realizes the depth of her sadness. His personal grief starts rising to the surface, when the “president” alien shows up to tell Hey he has 24 hours to finish the film.

Hey’s alien superiority collapses under the psychological weight of being in a human body, and his personal sadness starts overtaking him.

He makes one more Hail Mary attempt to make Ruth happy which backfires. Ashamed, Hey heads to the bus where he meets an eccentric old woman who makes him confront his own pain directly. Once he does, he returns to Ruth to apologize. She tells him the real story of why she’s sad. He doesn’t try to fix her. They sit together on the bench, and after a good cry, she falls asleep on him.

The movie never got made. It's time for Hey to be banished the Ultra Deep Field, but Hey chooses another path: to stay on earth.

DIRECTOR’S STATEMENT ABOUT THE PROJECT

We grieve the way we live.

This story is about learning how to grieve and withstand the pain of loss, in order to find something new — not necessarily happiness, but something even better: human connection.

Collectively, we are fractured and isolated. And the images we regularly see on our screens codify that. That may be the dominant narrative, but it’s not the whole story. Humans are wired to connect through grief, to integrate loss into their lives, and to grow.

We need new narratives to tell the whole story. We need films that expand our inner worlds. We need to envision new possibilities together.

I recently lost my dad. It was a cosmic shift. Though the loss of a parent is generally inevitable, it unmoored me.

I’m a working class-middle class artist, having had day jobs from bartending to fitness training to marketing strategy that have always pushed me up against the harsh existential (and often economic) realities of American life.

I want to represent the grieving American working class with depth, humor, and specificity. I want to give both everyday and cosmic grief its due.

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Meet The Filmmakers

Courtney Romano

Director/Writer/Producer

Courtney Romano is a writer/director. She’s also worked as a consultant, producer, and strategist on everything from NonDē films to celebrity projects. Under her own production company Queens Bird Films, she created the award-winning projects Kinsley Vs. (digital series) and Screen Test (short film), as well as two podcasts, Let’s Go Again: A Philosophical and Practical Guide for Indie Creatives, and The Break Breakdown. She created and runs the NonDē 50 Films Project, a coalition of now 100+ filmmakers dedicated to producing and coordinating 50 non-dependent films this year. In addition to her own film-related Substack, Let’s Go Again, she edits and curates FilmStack Daily Digest, and writes about death/grief on Messier Objects. This year, she’s making her first feature film.
queensbirdfilms.com
Sara Conte

Producer

Sara is a producer whose 20 years of casting experience spans memorable commercial campaigns for brands like Dove and BMW, as well as indie films, Lupe, The Lipstick Stain and The Drought. Sara honed her production skills on- and off-set, helming the background casting departments for several studio-backed TV + Film projects, including The Amazing Spider-Man and Gossip Girl. Guided by her love of creativity and collaboration, Sara continues to build, developing new projects, connecting artists, and producing some really great work that you should definitely watch again and again. Bring friends. Outside of work, she's a dedicated hobbyist and mom to the best kiddo ever, easily her favorite production to date.
M. Akram Shibly

Producer
Akram is a Sundance X ISF Building Bridges Fellow and CAAM Building Bridges Documentary Fund grant recipient whose work in public media has earned him a Webby Award (Brave Spaces), a Telly Award, and an Emmy Award (Compact History). His projects span intimate documentaries, imaginative narrative films, and personal storytelling that explores justice, spirituality, and identity. A Syrian-American with Sufi roots, Akram brings emotional depth and strategic vision to every project. He is a father, and a relentless advocate for truth-telling with heart. Through it all, Akram builds stories that heal, challenge, and resonate across both audio and audiovisual mediums.

trueintentproductions.com
Allison Koehler

Producer/Costume Designer
Allie Koehler is a Brooklyn based wardrobe stylist whose work can be seen everywhere from advertising campaigns, to personal clients to the red carpet and more.

alliekoehler.com