CHANGEMAKER — SERIES CONCEPT
CHANGEMAKER is a satirical black comedy series about a Brooklyn filmmaker who struggles to make his first documentary feature — a film about a disabled homeless man living on the streets of New York.
The concept is based on my MFA thesis short film of the same name. In form and sensibility, it is similar to things like THE OFFICE, EXTRAS, LIFE IS TOO SHORT, NATHAN BARLEY, VEEP, and SPINAL TAP.
The main character of the series is Jonathan Eton. He is single, in his mid-30s, lives with roommates, and struggles to make ends meet while pursuing his dream: to become a respected documentarian. He wants to be part of the conversation, to raise awareness about important issues — problems that plague society but which everyone overlooks.
The series opens up with Jonathan holding a casting session to find the “right” homeless person for his film. And it finishes with him getting an acceptance letter from Sundance. In between those two events, we follow Jonathan on his daily grind as he struggles to make the film: We meet his friends and colleagues. We watch him quarrel with his homeless subject. We follow him on his depressing Tinder dates. We see him networking at New York media parties and trying to raising money for his film on the Internet.
Jonathan’s filmmaking life forms the narrative backbone of the series. But the story is larger than that.
CHANGEMAKER is a comedy about the independent film community. It’s also satire on the media world at large — exploitative, hypocritical, a bit sad, and most important: funny as hell.
Evgenia Kovda is a filmmaker from Moscow who lives in Los Angeles. Evgenia has an M.F.A. in Integrated Media Arts from Hunter College, City University of New York. She has directed a number of short films that have screened and won awards at international film festivals — including Girlfriends (“Подруги”) and Changemaker.