A group of college friends are left 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.
We enter the world of THE WAVES as SYDNEY (54) and her best friend since childhood CORY (55) spend their final day in Los Angeles where Sydney obtains end-of-life meds in her quest to beat ALS to the punch as it takes over her body. Back at her family’s Midwestern lake house, a party crowd of friends and fellow artists gather to celebrate her final night on earth. Syd’s final wish is to reunite their college friend group for a weekend after she is gone. Cory is left to be the den mother as the friends arrive in varying degrees of midlife second-puberty chaos. In addition to Cory, and her secret impending divorce and children who aren’t speaking to her, there’s:
• SIMONE (55), the Creole Princess who has secretly tanked her family’s real estate business;
• MIA (55), the kickass sports reporter who’s discovered a new sexual freedom in her third marriage;
• REENIE (55), the college professor still living a mostly closeted life;
• And ALEX (55), the brash, record exec, who after refusing to come, arrives drunk and blows chow all over the dinner table – and Simone’s perfect blowout.
Alex’s messy arrival sets the tone for the emotional exorcism that is their weekend. The women discover that Sydney (posthumously nicknamed Princess Pixie Dust as they spread her ashes) left them clues to her love and knowledge of their truest selves, and a surprise to make each of their dreams come true. Secrets. College bar flirtations. Queerness (willingly) outed. The past and the present alchemize with loss and dark humor in a gumbo of love and discovery that leaves them all closer to truly seeing and understanding themselves and one another.
Our friends, how seldom visited, how little known—it is true;
and yet, when I meet an unknown person, and try to break off,
here at this table, what I call ‘my life,’ it is not one life that I look back upon;
I am not one person; I am many people;
I do not altogether know who I am...or how to distinguish my life from theirs.
-- The Waves, Virginia Woolf
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
