As part of our See Change initiative, we strive to showcase the work of women and non-binary individuals and their behind-the-scenes involvement in a production.
This film is produced by Lucy McKendrick and Lizzie Shapiro.
Film Information
"I wanted to explore the violence and vulnerability of boyhood in a way I hadn’t seen on screen. Many coming-of-age films, particularly about boys, tend to be comedic or nostalgic — but for me, being 12 felt more like a living hell of social anxiety...The Plague is a personal film, directly inspired by the journals I kept during a summer camp I attended in 2003. While the story is fictional, the emotional core — the shifting power dynamics, the fear of humiliation, even some of the dialogue — comes from lived experience." – Director, Charlie Polinger
In the summer of 2003 at an all-boys water polo camp, a socially anxious twelve-year-old is pulled into a cruel tradition targeting an outcast with an illness they call “The Plague.” But as the lines between game and reality blur, he fears the joke might be hiding something real.
Reviews
"This is not a nice, happy movie in which everyone learns a lesson in the end about kindness and sharing and being yourself...It’s not even about finding your “tribe,” so to speak. It’s darker and more feral, either euphoria or a hallucination or both." – New York Times
Film Stills
