When winter begins, life is serene for a group of new-age Brooklynites living in a remote country farmhouse. Sex, drugs, yoga, and organic cooking absorb their days, safely tucked away from the stresses of urban life. But when a blackout of apocalyptic proportions strands them with no heat and no electricity during the coldest winter on record, their utopian commune is breached by anxiety and their idyllic harmony begins to lose its tune. As time wears on and the food supply dwindles, power struggles, jealousy, and desire threaten the group's ability to work together in order to survive.
Cinematography
16mm film gives the blackout an eerie, flickering intimacy.
Direction
Dickinson actually cut power to the house for authenticity.
Acting
Improvised performances blur fiction with genuine discomfort.
Director
Benjamin Dickinson
Trivia, insights & behind the scenes
The entire production budget was $7,000, and the cast/crew actually lived in the farmhouse during the 2011 winter shoot. The 'apocalyptic' blackout was just... their actual power going out.
Released pre-pandemic, it now reads as an accidental prophecy of lockdown dynamics—privileged people unraveling in isolation, performing wellness while falling apart.
US
