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New Canaan Teen Seeks Support To Make His Movie On Schizophrenia

NEW CANAAN, Conn. -- A New Canaan High School sophomore is seeking community to support to a screenplay he has written about a teenager with schizophrenia into a film.

Jackson Oehmler, 15, of New Canaan made a documentary about what it's like to be firefighter. He also launched a Kickstarter campaign to fund his next movie.

Photo Credit: Jackson Oehmler Productions

Jackson Oehmler, 15, has launched a campaign on Kickstarter to raise $4,000 to make the film. He has until March 28 to raise the funds, and as of Monday was less than halfway toward his goal.

Oehmler has already won two awards with his filmmaking and has had an operational YouTube channel since 2014. He was also a production assistant for Scheme Engine, a multimedia company, last summer. He produced a documentary short film, "BLAZE: What It's Like To Be A Firefighter," which has generated more than 13,000 views. Click here to watch the video.

Oehmler's new film, “REAL,” details the account of a family that struggles to survive after its private jet crashes on the shore of a small island. Andrew, the youngest member of the family, finds himself torn between his family and a hallucination that causes him to question what’s real and what’s not.

According to the Kickstarter page, Oehmler will use the funds for equipment, props and fees to shoot on location. He plans to shoot the film in July, and edit the film between August and October. It will then be sent to different film festivals around the country.

On the Kickstarter page, Oehmler said he hopes to bring awareness to schizophrenia to the public, especially teenagers.

““REAL is the idea that resulted from months and months of research about the disorder: a visually stunning feature-length psychological thriller that is entirely a metaphor for schizophrenia,’’ he wrote on Kickstarter. “I’m not gonna sugar coat it: this film will be dark, but the disease is much darker. I truly believe and hope that this film will raise awareness as to what schizophrenia is, especially in the younger generation, and in turn, help people to recognize the symptoms.”

Click here to visit Oehmler’s Kickstarter page.

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