‘To All Dust Return’ set to premiere at local drive-in theater
“To All Dust Return” is a short film by URI film student. Photo by Jordan Delisle.
Amity seems to have something to hide … possibly some witchy magic? Film student Alyssa Botelho’s short film “To All Dust Return” takes viewers back to colonial times to uncover the mystery and discover Amity’s truth.
“To All Dust Return” is a period piece about a young girl named Amity who people begin to become suspicious of because what she is hiding seems to be something possibly witchy and ungodly. The short was written and directed by film student Alyssa Botelho for her film capstone project and was filmed in Cape Cod, Massachusetts.
Botelho said when she started writing the film last summer, she knew she wanted to have a strong, young female lead who would have to face great odds in some way. Though the concept came about back in August 2020, she wrote the script within roughly three weeks, then assembled a team and started to plan for filming. Botelho said there were about 14 people involved in the making of the film and it was filmed over a two-day timespan in March.
Botelho loved seeing her script come to life, and become the short film she knew it could be.
“Being on set and seeing the characters in costume and the fireplace is roaring and you’re in this old building, and it’s really cool to see actually happen,” said Botelho.
This was only her second time she’s been part of a short film. Her first was when she was the writer and director of a short film called “Junkie” in the fall of 2019. She said there were a ton of moving parts in motion during the process, from making shooting schedules to renting professional equipment.
Creating a piece like this can pose a challenge, and requires a lot of research to get it right, since it takes place in colonial times, but even with these challenges at play, Botelho was determined to get the film right.
“The amount of thought, creativity, time and talent that got poured into preparing these things really blew my mind,” said Lionel Jeffries, the film’s assistant director.
He said that Botelho did lots of research leading up to the film on even the smallest details like what the grammar was during the time so that a letter written by the main character would be accurate to the time period, calling her “sheer attention” to the details “incredible.”
A lot of the crew from this film were people that Botello knew from her hometown of Fairhaven, Massachusetts, and there were only a few students from the University of Rhode Island who were part of the project. Another URI student who was involved in the film was Grace DeSanti, the script supervisor. She said that the team behind this film worked extremely well together and were a great group of people to work with.
“Everybody knew exactly what they needed to do,” DeSanti said. “It was just so fun. Everybody just bounced off each other’s energy, work and ideas. It was a really, really good group of people.”
The film is now in post-production and will be wrapped up next month. If you are interested in seeing “To All Dust Return,” it will be premiering on May 20 at the Misquamicut Drive In-Theater in Westerly, Rhode Island, and more details regarding the screening will be released soon by the URI film department.