Director: Madeline Weiner

Producer: Abi Van Andel

Contact Information: maddieweiner@gmail.com & abi.actress@gmail.com

Link: https://linktr.ee/shakermovie

SYNOPSIS: Pleasant Hill, Kentucky, 1844: Hannah, an 18-year-old Shaker girl, has a life that is peaceful and predictable, but something in her yearns for excitement. She meets her new roommate Margaret, a formerly enslaved young woman who has just joined the Shakers along with her brother, Joshua. Margaret is suspicious of the Shakers’ unusual way of life, but she and Hannah are instantly drawn together. One day, their worship service is interrupted by a woman’s heavenly visions, which initiate a period of spiritualism and celestial visitations in the usually calm society. Eldress Sarah, female leader of the East Family (Hannah and Margaret’s Shaker family), discourages Hannah from her close relationship with Margaret and from getting swept up in the Era of Manifestations. But the Eldress’s warning comes too late: Hannah, Margaret, and the other young Shakers hold an unrestrained “midnight mass”, with Hannah channeling the Shakers’ founder, Mother Ann Lee. The short ends on a cliffhanger as Hannah and Margaret share a kiss and do the one thing Shakers must never do: fall in love.