Genre
Synopsis
In this deeply personal feature documentary, filmmaker Heather Greer turns the camera on herself in an attempt to heal from her mother’s decades-long depression and eventual suicide in the New York City subway on Mother's Day in 2008. Ever since learning at the age of 11 that the aunts she thought died from cancer had in fact died by suicide, Heather has been in search of answers. Her initial inquiry was directed at her mother, who found herself giving Heather family photos and letters to try and help her understand the things she could not explain. Heather put the items in a box that she kept under her bed, spending hours by herself going through them in search of clues to her family’s hidden stories. After her mother’s death, Heather started filling the box with her own artifacts until one day it became too much for her to bear alone and a desire to abandon her role as the keeper of the family’s pain emerged. IN THE BOX UNDER MY BED chronicles Heather’s journey from isolation to reconnection as she excavates the most potent artifacts and unearths the true cost of holding onto them.
Director Identity
Bio
Heather Greer is an Emmy-winning producer, award-winning filmmaker, and media artist. She is the founder of Black Tartan Studios, an Emmy-winning production company and boutique creative agency that specializes in short-form, nonfiction content centered around powerful human-driven stories. Heather’s films and video installations have screened and been exhibited nationally and internationally at leading festivals and arts venues including MoMA, Tribeca, BAFICI, the Female Eye Film Festival, the Calgary International Film Festival, and CineDoc.
THE HALFWAY BETWEEN ALL THIS, a short documentary that she co-directed and produced, was an official selection at the 2024 Calgary International Film Festival. She is currently co-directing and producing HILDA O. VS. THE STATE OF NEW YORK, a short documentary that follows 81-year-old Hilda Onley between deposition and court judgment as she seeks justice for the sexual abuse she endured while at the New York State Training School for Girls in 1958. NEVEREVERLAND, Heather’s feature narrative screenplay, was a selected project for the 2024 Stowe Narrative Lab. Heather holds a masters from the Interactive Telecommunications Program at NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts and a Bachelor of Arts from Georgetown University.
