Texas State Senator Julian Dobbs walks up the stairs of the State
Capitol building in Austin, Texas, an unconscious woman in his arms
and his face awash in shock.
He sits down for a news interview to discuss his upcoming Heartbeat
bill legislation but something is off: tubes of blood connect him to
the unconscious woman, never far from him in her wheelchair.
As the film cuts back and forth between the interview and other
parts of Dobbs’ life, his seemingly clear-cut anti-abortion stance
becomes more complicated. Physically and politically, the
unconscious woman (a violinist) is a significant obstruction. After
facing a crowd of protestors chanting, “Your body, your choice!”
Dobbs is flustered and throws up.He receives a phone call from his
doctor telling him that keeping the woman alive, filtering her
blood, is damaging his kidneys.
Finally, we learn that Senator Dobbs was kidnapped and connected to
the woman against his will and must keep her attached to his body
for nine months.
These experiences– and his desperate desire to not keep
someone alive with his own body against his will– ultimately lead to
Senator Dobbs re-considering his bill and his stance on abortion.
"THE VIOLINIST" is inspired by the 1971 moral philosophy essay “A Defense of Abortion” by Judith Jarvis Thompson, which poses extreme thought experiments to support the case for access to abortion.
The film was shot in June 2022 and completed in October 2022. We received a competitive Austin Film Society Short Film grant and crowdsourced over $10K to bring the project to fruition.
The film uses satire and dark humor to tell a story about what it feels like to be forced to keep another body alive with your body. It’s an exploration of bodily autonomy and personal freedom.
"THE VIOLINIST" has also evolved from writer/director Katy McCarthy's experience living in Texas, where the recently passed Senate Bill 8 (a “heartbeat bill”) has effectively outlawed abortion.
Bill Wise as Senator Dobbs
Bill is a 25-year veteran of screen and stage known for his roles in films by Richard Linklater and Trey Edward Shults. He’s a super hero genius who makes everyone shine a little brighter.
Amy Myers as The Violinist
Amy received her BFA in Ballet and Modern Dance from TCU. As a performer/choreographer, she has had the opportunity to present work all over Texas, the US, and Europe with many local companies/choreographers including (but not limited to) Blue Lapis Light, Aeriel Dance Theatre, Ellen Bartel Dance Collective, Ready Set Go, Jennifer Sherburn, Contemporary Dance/Fort Worth, BlipSwitch, Sky Candy, Woven Feet, and Rapt. She has also danced and/or choreographed for several musicians including Kesha, Band of Heathens, Linen Closet, Sorne, Technicolor Hearts, Nightdrive, Walker Lukens, and others. Amy is also a Certified Yoga Instructor, Licensed Massage Therapist, and creator of Amy’s Apothecary.
Cyndi Williams as The Lieutenant Governor
Cyndi Williams is an Austin-based actor and writer. She is best known for Kyle Henry's 2005 film Room, for which she received an Independent Spirit nomination for Best Lead Actress, and received the Karen Morley award from the Women Film Critics Circle. Among her other credits are Andrew Bujalski's Computer Chess, HBO's The Leftovers and Temple Grandin, and she is the voice of Poison Ivy for DC Universe Online. She is one of the stars of her script, Deeper and Deeper, produced by Bright Shining City, and her plays have been performed in Texas, New York, and Louisiana.
Jane Schwartz as The Girlfriend
Jane Schwartz is an actor and producer in Austin, TX. She recently executive-produced Mei Makino’s debut feature, Inbetween Girl, which is is distributed worldwide by Utopia Films. In her free time, Jane makes detailed, delicate shadow boxes using bugs and plant matter.
Katy McCarthy
Katy McCarthy (Writer, Director) is an artist, filmmaker and educator based in Austin, Texas. She holds a BFA from UC Santa Barbara and an MFA from the Interdisciplinary Studio Arts program at Hunter College in New York. Her short films “The Posers,” “Mary Todd Lincoln or Why I Couldn’t Finish The Video in Time,” and “SUCH LONELY COUNTRY” explore psychology and feminist history from a surrealist perspective. Her films have been screened at The Every Woman Biennial FIlm Festival, Boulevard Film Festival, CUNY Film Festival, NurtureART’s Single Channel: Video Art Festival, and at numerous galleries and museums.
Kat Broyles
Kat Broyles (Producer) is a multi-disciplinary artist, production designer, and director working in Austin, TX. Her films have been selected for the Santa Fe Independent Film Festival and the Austin Spotlight Film Festival. She has worked on numerous film sets, most notably SIX on History Channel as a production assistant and My Friend Shokat in production design.
Adam Golfer
Adam Golfer (Director of Photography) is a filmmaker, artist and cinematographer based in New York. His studio practice combines elements of photography, book making, short films, and installations, and informs his work as a DP. Adam’s work looks at the socio-psychological spaces between histories, and challenges the way we understand the past, present and future. His film essays and installations have been exhibited at the MoCP in Chicago, Hunter College, the Goethe Institut and the 92Y. In 2016, his photographic monograph, A House Without a Roof, was shortlisted for the Kraszna-Krausz Foundation’s photography book of the year, as well as the Aperture-Paris Photo First Book Award. His trilogy of short films We’ll Do the Rest (2015), Router (2017) and Two Sunsets (2020), reside in the slippery space between history and memory, employing multiple, overlapping narratives. In Golfer’s cosmology, the Holocaust, migration, the Border Wall, the death of his father, drone pilots, bird watching, Nazi reenactors, addiction, Hollywood, the moon and River Phoenix’s ghost are all symbols for the same idea -absence.