A precocious teen girl isn’t satisfied with simple answers after a Carbon Monoxide leak in Berkeley harms many, including a young, immigrant her in her community. She pushes the boundaries in searching for the truth, to find the unthinkable..
In 1999 Berkeley, California, Arthi wakes up to a carbon monoxide poisoning incident involving her sister Smita. Narayan Realty representatives, Laxmi and Vik, arrive to assist, but Sasha, a teenage journalist, observes suspicious behavior. She sees and hears Arthi crying out for her sister, but the sister is not there, and she wants to investigate further. She asks her journalism teacher, but he wants her to stick to the current assignment. But Sasha can’t stop thinking about the girls. Skeptical, Sasha checks on the girls at the hospital. She is told there is only one girl there and that she is stable. Sasha goes back to the building to see what else she can find. There she finds a random earring, encounters Jai Narayan, the building owner. She asks him about the other sister, and he tells her she doesn’t exist. He insists that the gas leak has been taken care of that there is nothing to worry about. Concurrently, a local FBI agent faces challenges in a drug bust and personal struggles with her ex, Aria, while being asked to dress up as a prostitute on multiple drugs busts. She’s not thrilled by this, but does it. Meanwhile Sasha convinces her journalism teacher to allow her to explore the carbon monoxide leak with classmate Emily for a story. They uncover that Arthi and Smita's were not enrolled in school, and suspect something deeper is going on, later finding that the sisters were working as laborers on Naryan’s properties. Nisha's next drug bust leads to finding a young Indian girl’s body in a warehouse. The girls is pregnant and died of rat poisoning. She is sent to the morgue as a “Jane Doe” since no one comes forward to ID her. Nisha thinks the department should do more to figure out who she is, but she gets pushback from her superiors. However, Sasha and Emily are alerted to the body being brought to the morgue, and Sasha IDs her as the girl who worked in a local Indian store. Determined to unravel the mystery, Sasha is determined to continue her investigation and know the truth.
Leena Pendharkar is an award-winning writer and director. Her most recent work is the television movie, A Date with Deception for Mar Vista/Lifetime, and two episodes of the kids’ show, Hello Jack! for Apple TV Plus, for which she was nominated for a Children's and Family Emmy Award.
She premiered her sophomore independent film, 20 Weeks, at the Los Angeles Film Festival. It was described as an “intimate, compassionate take on abortion” by the Los Angeles Times, and was released theatrically in 10 cities in April of 2018, and on Hulu and a number of other platforms. Leena is an alum of the Warner Brothers, CBS, and Sony Diverse Directors programs.
Leena has also written/directed several-award winning short films, including her most recent Tiny Joy which played in many a number of film festivals, including Bentonville, and was recently released on Omeleto and Shorted. Leena is also an Associate Professor at LMU’s School of Film + Television, and has an MFA in Screenwriting from UC-Riverside, Palm Desert.
Austin Film Screenplay Festival 2023 - Second Rounder
