ABOUT THE FILM
Waiting To Die In Bayside, Queens is a comedy short film which takes a look into the life of frizzy haired hypochondriac, 15 year old Jordyn Sherman. Jordyn lives in a small co-op apartment in the predominately Jewish middle class suburb of Bayside Queens. It’s 1976 and Jordyn is convinced she’s dying. It could be anything from the apartments stale air to the chemically laden canned green beans she’s forced to consume. While pouring her heart out into her Diary, and waiting on her impeding demise, Jordyn realizes if she drops dead right now she’ll never have found her signature scent, never told Hanna Eisenberg to wax her uni-brow, and the unthinkable…she'll be found wearing yesterday’s underwear!
DIRECTOR'S STATEMENT
When I first read Waiting To Die In Bayside, Queens, I found it to be hilarious as much as it was true. At the age of fifteen, everyone thinks they’re going to die of “natural causes”- embarrassment, boredom, drama. These emotions worked in conjunction with our no-longer hibernating hormones to create the cocktail known as adolescence. But Jordyn was special to me…because she was no different. This is the most honest portrayal of teen angst I have seen that didn’t involve vampires and dystopian regimes. Jordyn may be from a different time but her struggle is one that resonates between eras. Pop star crushes, odd families, believing that dying is easier than facing that crush- all rites of passage. As Jordyn says, "It’s hard to believe in yourself when nobody else does.” But then again, don’t we need that adversity to scrub away the moody teens we used to be? We were all just waiting to die- but to live on as better, happier people.
ABOUT THE DIRECTOR
Garrett is Los Angeles-based writer and director. He produced Epilogue, a science fiction web series, which went on to be a Student Emmy Winner and International Academy of Web Television Awards Nominee, among other accolades. His short film, Komisch, went on to be a 2013 Cannes Film Festival Short Corner Selection. Garrett is currently developing his first feature film.
ABOUT THE WRITER
Julie Nicholson is a Writer, Producer, Manager and founder of blue couch entertainment...
Julie is the recipient of 8 Telly Awards, 2 Aurora Awards, an Indi Fest Award and two Emmy Nominations for her work with Women in Film’s PSA Program writing and producing 30 second spots to bring awareness to needy charities that can’t afford to make their own commercials. For three years in a row, Julie was the Supervising Writer for the PSA Digital Program, a partnership between Women in Film and Santa Monica City TV.
Julie co-produced the short film Sticks and Stones which screened at The Cannes Film Festival in 2013 and procured distribution deals with Short TV and Sony 4K TV. She’s currently working on the sale of two screenplays and is involved in TV production. She recently wrote and produced Waiting To Die In Bayside Queens, a semi-autobiographical comedy short film about a hypochondriac teen growing up in Bayside Queens.
ABOUT THE ACTRESS
Dana Melanie was born in Los Angeles, California and began her career at an early age. Dana has since grown her resume with appearances on Criminal Minds, The Night Shift, CSI: Cyber and a handful of other TV shows. Dana's first lead in a film came in 2013 for the movie Treehouse, after which she landed the lead in, Jurassic City, Clarity, Hollywood and the short film Lissy Borton had an Axe. Recently, Dana starred alongside Molly Shannon in the upcoming feature, Wild Nights With Emily Dickinson and stars as Jordyn Sherman in Waiting to Die in Bayside, Queens.