THE WAVES: A group of college friends are forced to put together the broken pieces of friendship over a weekend in their old college town in the aftermath of the (assisted) suicide of the friend who was the glue who held them all together.
SYDNEY (54) and her lifelong bestie CORY (55) spend their final day in Los Angeles where Sydney obtains end-of-life meds in her quest to beat ALS as it takes over her body. Oceanside that night Sydney has one last comedic request for Cory involving a vibrator she can no longer hold.
Back at her family’s midwestern lake-house, they throw a party to celebrate Sydney’s final night. Sydney retires to her room to watch the sun come up before taking her death-Jello. Cory stands outside with a boombox raised above her head playing “In Your Eyes” by Peter Gabriel-- so Sydney knows she’s loved to the very end.
Syd’s final wish is a weekend reunion of their college friends she planned. The friends arrive amidst midlife second-puberty chaos. In addition to writer Cory and her marriage and family chaos, there’s:
• SIMONE (55), the real estater who’s secretly tanked her family’s business;
• MIA (55), the reporter who’s discovered a new sexual freedom in her third marriage;
• REENIE (55), the professor who’s still living a closeted life;
• And ALEX (55), the record exec, who’s battling multiple demons, arrives late and drunk, and blows chow all over the breakfast table.
This sets the tone for the emotional exorcism that is their weekend. The hallmark activity for Saturday is what Sydney named a “reverse scavenger hunt” to sprinkle her ashes around the old college campus, with Cory leading the pack. Five locations for five sacred friendships. Long-held secrets are revealed.
On their last day together, Cory gives the women Sydney’s final gift -- a check enabling each of them to follow their true “if only” dreams, and they each receive a pair of Syd’s shoes to walk in her footsteps on her behalf. This sends Alex reeling until Sydney’s ghost appears and forces her to take in the why of this reunion: Turn to and lean on the friends who are still here and choose to be there for one another. Re-connected, each looking out for the others, they will figure out this midlife-ness, and they will be (mostly) ok.
Charise M. Studesville is a bestselling writer, filmmaker, and mixed media artist who uses truth to illuminate darkness within the human experience. She has a life-long obsession with secrets, and loves the discovery process of untangling them and finding the universal truths hidden within. She believes it’s how we discover the common bonds that build cosmic connection.
Charise has recently been delving into stories of women that center what she calls the midlife second puberty, where we have the opportunity to apply the life lessons and discoveries that are the rewards for our growing pains. All of this is integral to her current art, including such projects as: REASONS TO LIVE, a “mixed media memoir” and film project that revisit her adventures through the zeitgeist of the cultural and social scene of 1980s New York City; THE WAVES, a feature film about what happens to the friends left behind when ALS moves their mutual bestie to choose an assisted suicide exit and leaves one last wish for them to honor; and THE COMPOUND, a film that illuminates a non-traditional love story amongst unlikely friends who discover their happily-ever-after in their self-made homestead community.
Charise has films, tv, and book projects in the hopper, and is always excited to take on new projects that elevate her storytelling journey. As a fierce advocate for women, she is a proud member of WIF, Film Fatales, Women In Media, and Alliance of Women Directors, and is the founder of Hollywood Chick Mafia, a community of creative rebel chicks supporting each others' badassery.
Earlier versions: • African American Women in Cinema Film Festival, Best Screenplay, 2005
• Tribeca All-Access, Screenwriting Finalist, 2007
• Moondance International Film Festival, Moondance GAIA Award,
• 2024 Fellow – Stowe Narrative Fellowship, The Waves feature
• Austin Film Festival, 2nd rounder, The Waves, 2021
DP - Valentina Caniglia
