Lucid

Running time: 89 mins

United States Premiere

Joel Rothman does not sleep. His wife has left him, and he can?t help himself from playing her farewell message on his answering machine over and over. His daughter is starting to demonstrate severe psychological distress due to the absence of her mother. Compounding his problems are his three new Post Traumatic Stress Syndrome patients?one who is suicidal, one who has profound anger management issues and another who is attaching emotionally to Joel in a manner which is not healthy.

As the days without sleep mount, Joel starts making headway with his patients. But his methods are considered unorthodox by the HMO he works for, and his supervisor wants him to release from treatment the very people who are helping him as much as he is helping them. With the assistance of his new found friends, Joel hopes to discover not only whereabouts of his wife, but the key to bringing his daughter back to reality and to him.

Director Sean Garrity (Inertia - Cinequest, 2002) mixes humor with compelling drama in his psychological study of a man under extreme stress. Actor Jonas Chernick perfectly displays both the anxiety and control of a person whose life is falling apart but who must remain stable for the sake of his child. And in Joel?s quest to stay lucid and unravel the mystery that is his life, he ultimately makes a discovery about himself that is both shocking and emotionally devastating.

Sandy Wolf

MAVERICK COMPETITION