Would you still love her, even if she looked like this?
Is beauty really skin deep? Would you still love her even if she looked like this? A young man seeks out his high school crush to profess his love when he learns she has contracted a horrific skin disease.
Cartesian Presents: Malady Short Film
From the director Will Schneider:
Malady came to me like a fever dream. The concept popped into my head near the end of my time as an MFA Directing student at DePaul University. I was randomly daydreaming about one of my high school crushes while watching “Ben Hur” in class. The leprosy scene hit me hard and sparked an idea: what if said high school crush had been afflicted by a similar disease and had done everything she possibly could to shut herself out from the world? Would I still want to see her? Then, “Malady” was born.
Malady came together very quickly. I wrote the script, cast it, crewed it, and shot it all in the span of about 3 weeks. We also got extremely lucky in that it was shot in March 2020 literally days before the entire world shut down. Talk about cutting it close! With a style inspired by Robert Eggers, David Lynch, Pawel Pawlikowski, and Ingmar Bergman, “Malady” is a love letter to…well, love, and how far one will go for someone they truly fall for. Beauty is only skin deep, and no disease can stand in the way of true affection.
Written and Directed by Will Schneider
Produced by Anthony Pitsilos & Wesley Orlowski
Director of Photography Anh Vo
Production Designer Nicole Tsai
Edited by Charlie Kessler
Music by Brandon Schnake
Starring
Charlie – Derek Jepsen
Rebecca – Melanie McNulty
Mrs. Murphy – Chandra Michaels
First Assistant Director Ting-Yu Chang
Key Makeup Artist Corrine Ashley
First Assistant Camera Andreas Brimmer
Second Assistant Camera Joe Real
Gaffer John Nicholls
Key Grip Connor Markuson
DIT Charlie Kessler
Production Sound Mixer Tom Le
Sound Design Mansour Altwaijri
Re-recording Mixer Mansour Altwaijri
Colorist Anh Vo
Unit Stills Photographer Yijun Pan
Special Thanks To
DePaul University
The Orlowski Family
The Schneider Family
Caitlin Presberg
Alex Janiuk
George Ellzey Jr.
