Set in the lush Rocky Mountains of Colorado, this independently produced short film started as an NYU Tisch School of the Arts thesis project until the COVID pandemic shut down educational institutions. From that challenging position, helmer Kaya Tone continued undaunted, drawing from her rich imagination, childhood memories of the area and a talented filmmaking team. The rock-strewn, unpaved road to completing The Call of Water must have informed a storyboard that leads to quite trippy and existential places.
High on mushrooms and faced with selling the family homestead, lead character Nadia plunges into the astral plane, coming face-to-face with a mythologically inspired creature called The Horned One. A guardian of the land and water, this strange being will release Nadia's soul back into her body only under certain conditions related to its captive's earthly responsibilities. Nadia is trapped inside her own imagination by something that exists outside her mind, and the only means of escape is to do the right thing.
Tone produced the film with an ethical concern for the environment to the extent of running a green set; love for her Colorado homeland and the ecology in which it resides is evident throughout. Punctuating undercurrents of appreciation and longing with moments of fear, she hints that all can be swept away forever by unwise decisions. You can watch the trailer here:
