Stray Dog

Collaboration

Logline
Set in 1932 Salisbury, childhood friends Nancy and Oz run a travelling silent picture show out of the back of a car, both in the search for independence.

Synopsis
Stray Dog is a 10 minute period drama set in the early 1930s, at the tipping point between silent cinema and the rise of the talkies. The film centres on Nancy, who watches her childhood friend Oz fracture his relationship with his brother, Ed, over the failure of their family-run silent picturehouse in the rise of the new era. Oz abandons his brother and takes to the open road in search of freedom. Nancy trails along, hoping their ramshackle travelling cinema enterprise might offer her a chance at independence and escape. What begins as hedonistic fun quickly unravels, as Oz becomes consumed by the thrill of his bacchanalian lifestyle and loses sight of the responsibilities to keep their enterprise alive.

Frustrated at having to pick up the pieces and single-handedly keep their business afloat, Nancy enters into a fierce argument with Oz after a long, unsuccessful night. During which, Oz, distracted and drunk, hits a stray dog with his car. Nancy runs out to help, but when she begs Oz to hand her a wrench, he remains in the car, paralysed and unable to face what’s happened. Forced to end the animal’s suffering herself, she returns to the car streaked with blood and tears, and demands to be taken home to her family. Oz is left to confront the consequences of his actions alone, and with nowhere else to turn, drifts back to Ed and their family cinema. He enters the picturehouse to find business thriving without him and finally learns the truth he’s been running from. The problem was never the industry, times, nor the clientele, but himself.

Benjamin Pritchard (Writer and Director)