ABOUT THE PROJECT
LOGLINE
Diving into the fluid constellation of open marriage, queerness, caregiving and cancer surfaces both friction and exalted love between a woman, her husband, and her lover as they build to a 50th birthday celebration—2 years early.
SYNOPSIS
ACTUAL WEIGHT OF CLOUDS is a love story about a queer open marriage, a shifting constellation of family, and the death of a husband and father. Kyle and Rivkah’s single wedding vow was to keep growing. After 20 years they open their marriage when Rivkah falls in love with her girlfriend, Randi. Six months later, Kyle’s cancer roars back, knocking them all into a mapless future.
Rivkah films to cope with Kyle’s refusal to discuss his dying, leaning into her relationship with Randi to navigate a new level of caregiving, anticipatory grief, and denial in her home. Unscripted vignettes capture the intensity and humor of this time. Watching Randi and Rivkah’s desire effervesce juxtaposed with the old love ocean between Rivkah and Kyle surfaces the complexity of this time. When Kyle’s health declines, Rivkah gathers their community at a friend’s Northern California ranch. The kids ask why they are celebrating Daddy’s 50th when he’s only 48. Fog, wind, rain, and sun create a moody backdrop for Kyle, Randi, Rivkah, their 5 collective kids, siblings, and chosen family to dive wholeheartedly into a celebration of Kyle’s life.
We’re grappling with the third act now, in which Kyle passes. We have more to film as we catch up with Rivkah, Randi and kids 2 years later, balancing intense vulnerability with humor. We’re laying in conversations, experimenting with asynchronous audio over vérité scenes to explore what was unsayable in the time of Kyle’s living and dying. Old Super 8, family movies, fogscapes, wild roots, and clouds provide context, passage of time, and micro/macro views which, intercut with the vérité, convey that while this is the entire universe for Rivkah, Kyle, Randi and their kids, this is also just one love story among millions that play out every day.
PROJECT TYPE Documentary Feature
DIRECTOR Rivkah Beth Medow, Jen Rainin
SCREENWRITER Rivkah Beth Medow, Jen Rainin, Ian Olds
PRODUCER Rivkah Beth Medow, Jen Rainin
WEBSITE franklyspeakingfilms.com
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