The Way to Healing, is Love

Fawn aka Mara and the High Council of 7 is a delicately gothic, Shakespearean-esque short film that explores the psychological fracturing, and intimate mending, of our dear Mara.

Written, Directed, and Starring Toi’ya Leatherwood, an award winning filmmaker, actress, ballerina and trauma survivor, Fawn aka Mara and the High Council of 7 has been intricately crafted to bring awareness to the under researched phenomena known as “fawning” whilst giving hope in the form of love as an anthesis to shame, and ultimately, suicide.

Synopsis

Fawn aka Mara and the High Council of 7 follows our dear Mara as she attempts to woo the High Council of 7 by offering them a delicately broken gift in exchange for them granting her eternal sleep. Affronted and disgusted, the High Council rejects this offering thus causing our intricately crafted Mara to viscerally spiral. Mara pushes and pulls with her anger’s strength. Her 21st century tongue colliding in valiant long bursts with the High Council’s riddled language of old. Eventually leaving her exhausted and muddied against the ethereally rose- pedaled floor. In the end, Mara is faced with a choice, accept the given love that is offered to her or return to the world of beautifully broken thorns…?

The Urgency

In an era defined by the exposure of systemic trauma, exploring fawning as a somatic fear response is now a matter of life and death. While fight or flight is widely understood, fawning remains critically under-researched. With sexual assault survivors 10x more likely to attempt suicide, bringing this woefully under-explored phenomena to light is urgently necessary. Deconstructing the fawn experience on a cinematically metaphysical level will leave survivors feeling not only validated in their lived experiences but empowered to continue the valiant fight for their own Spirits.

Together, As One

“Fawn aka Mara and the High Council of 7” seeks to open the door to conversations about fawning and its connection to not only suicide but to various sources of trauma. Our themes such as self harm, suicide, sexual abuse, generational trauma, psychological warfare, C-PTSD, shame, and self hatred are centered around exposing fawning, observing the confusion woven within fawning, whilst offering love as a way to sooth, and thus understand, and most importantly forgive fawning.

My hope is that people will walk away from this film feeling empowered, empathetic and ready to continue this critically necessary conversation in their own homes, with loved ones, or within their specific medical communities.

With your generous donation of helping us achieve our $33,000 goal that will go directly to the production of this film in way of paying our local LA crew, cast and location, I know that we can, and will, help millions.

Thank you for your support and willingness to be on this journey with me.

In abundance of gratitude,

Toi’ya Leatherwood

Executive Producer, Writer, Director, Actress

Fawn aka Mara and the High Council 7