The Mercy of the JungleFaculty SelectsWritten by Casey Schroen
At the outbreak of the Second Congo War, Sergeant Xavier is sent into the vicious depths of the Congolese River Basin to hunt down those who perpetrated genocide in his native Rwanda four years ago. When he and a young private are accidentally left behind in the jungle, their bid for retribution turns into a struggle for pure survival. With only each other to count on, they embark
on an odyssey across the most violent forest on earth, facing the depths of their own war-torn souls and the spiritual consequences of saving and taking lives.
 | | CASEY SCHROEN grew up in Harrisonburg, Virginia, a rural college town
on the edge of Appalachia. After studying media as an undergrad, he worked a series of blue-collar jobs while writing scripts at night. He moved to New York City to study film at Columbia and do absolutely anything other than work rotating shifts in a factory. "Absolutely anything" came to include mentoring East African screenwriters through Mira Nairʼs Maisha Foundation. He co-wrote and produced IMBABAZI, the first feature film by young Rwandan director Joel Karekezi. It received production awards from the Göteborg International Film Festival Fund and the Global Film Initiative, and is set to hit festivals later this year. Casey will earn his MFA in Screenwriting in May 2012. His adventurous spirit tends toward fresh, edgy genre stories with emotional depth and taut pacing - absolutely anything to entertain his fellow man after a long day of work. | |
THE ARCHER
THRILLER, ADVENTURE
Fourteen-year-old Lauren Pierce strives to be a model student and championship junior archer at her socially conservative high school. When a jealous, misogynistic bully exposes her secret crush on a female teammate, Laurenʼs humiliating meltdown leads to expulsion and a summer sentence at an isolated teen boot camp in Montana. As the corrupt director and his perverse son forcefully reeducate Lauren by any means necessary, she executes a daring escape plan with the help of an alluring classmate. A violent clash ensues across the surrounding wilderness, where Laurenʼs lethal skills with a bow could mean the difference between life, death, and a shot at her new crush.
THE BLOOD LINE
HORROR, PSYCHOLOGICAL-THRILLER
Southern boy Derek Scutt takes a job working the night shift at a mindless printing plant when his career as the next William Faulkner doesnʼt take root. With his girlfriend pregnant and writerʼs block leading to bouts of drunken nihilism, Derekʼs dreams seem all but vanquished. That is until a freak press accident at work savagely mangles a coworker to death, prompting the slimy owner to offer Derek a chance to print his book in exchange for his silence. With nothing to lose, Derek agrees. Only then does he begin to unravel the horrific truth behind what really goes on during the night shift, and why he keeps dreaming about a brutal creature that feeds on his blood.
