A Groundbreaking Film Exploring EMDR, Trauma, and Healing

The Director's Story:

Three years ago I sat in a therapist's office, held pulsers, closed my eyes, and went back into the worst rooms of my life — on purpose. That's EMDR: Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing, the evidence-based therapy that has helped millions of people metabolize trauma that talk alone couldn't reach. It gave me my life back. It also gave me the strangest, most cinematic experience I've ever had — the push and pull between memory and the present, the way a session can feel like a place. A place you could, if you're not careful, prefer.

The Film:

TETHERED is a deeply personal psychological drama inspired by the realities of complex trauma and the long, often nonlinear process of healing. Too often, stories about trauma focus on the abuse itself. TETHERED is about what comes after. It asks what healing really looks like, why it can be so frightening, and what it truly takes to move forward.

The film follows Jill, a young woman who turns to EMDR therapy after escaping an emotionally abusive relationship and cutting ties with her family. As therapy draws her into vivid memories she has spent years avoiding, the boundaries between memory and reality begin to blur, forcing her to confront not only her past—but the possibility of a different future.

We believe audiences are hungry for emotionally honest, character-driven stories like Sorry, Baby, The Fallout, and All of Us Strangers—films that trust viewers, spark conversation, and stay with them long after the credits roll.

TETHERED is interior, tense, precise, and built on performance. We will shoot 15 days in Los Angeles under the SAG-AFTRA low-budget agreement, on a disciplined budget, for release into a specialty-film market that has repeatedly turned exactly this kind of film — the sub-$1M psychological drama with serious actors — into festival breakouts.

The Team:

Writer/Director Jenna Lex is a multi-hyphenate filmmaker whose work sits at the intersection of genre and emotional realism. Cinematographer Greg Cotten shot the 2025 Sundance Audience Award winner Twinless and is the founder of Filmbox, the film-emulation tool used from Oscar-winning films to studio tentpoles. First AD Jessica Dho's indie features have played SXSW multiple times. Our casting director, Jessica Munks, cast Twinless — and our cast offers are out to Emmy-nominated actors whose names you know. We'll announce them here the moment contracts are signed.

What Your Gift Makes:

Every contribution, no matter the size, helps make this film possible. Thank you for believing in independent cinema and in stories that remind us healing is possible.

For donations larger than $1000, please consider sending a check or making a wire transfer.

Checks should be made out to “Creative Visions Foundation” with "Tethered" in the memo section and mail to:

Creative Visions

℅ Grace Breuer

1047 Ford Drive

Nipomo, CA 93444

To make a donation by wire transfer, please email: jenna@littlefiercefilms.com for more information.

FAQ's:

Is this an investment? No. Gifts to TETHERED are charitable donations through Creative Visions Foundation — they carry screen credit, access, and our lasting gratitude, not a financial interest in the film. That's what makes them tax-deductible.

Is the EMDR portrayal accurate? The script was written from the director's own EMDR treatment.

Closing:

Films about therapy are usually made by people who researched it. This one is made by someone who lived it — with a community that practices it, and for those still working towards healing.

— Jenna Lex, Writer/Director · jenna@littlefiercefilms.com