Cotton Fever

The Film

Cotton Fever is a feature-length narrative drama-thriller that follows a mosaic of characters as they struggle with addiction on the streets of Boston during the height of the fentanyl epidemic.

Slated to shoot in September 2024, we are a community-funded project operating on a microbudget. Our team, including many experienced producers and craftspeople, are volunteering their time and resources because we believe in the film creatively and from a social impact perspective. We have been co-signed by the local recovery community, who also believe in the spirit of the film and its power to enact change.

The Filmmaker

Daniel Blake Schwartz is a Boston-based filmmaker whose short films have played festivals in the United States and Europe. His films center around themes of class, social isolation, and addiction, and he has done significant outreach work with organizations like Youth on Fire and Cambridge Addiction Advocacy Group, as well as providing support on the streets of Greater Boston for individuals struggling with addiction and homelessness. Drawing from his own journey through addiction and recovery, Dan has an authentic vision that is based on lived experience.

“As a former addict, I spent a lot of time hearing stories. Stories of what people did to get money. Stories of people getting clean or relapsing. Stories of people robbing each other. I always loved the poetic ones. They were easy to retell and they spread like wildfire through the community. You would hear about people you knew doing unimaginable things, but at the same time, you understood and empathized because as an addict you had done it all before. All of the stories in the piece are inspired by my own life, details of friends and acquaintances, and interviews that I have conducted over the years.” - Dan Schwartz

Dan’s short proof of concept of the same name played at IFF Boston, Palm Beach International Film Festival, Tacoma Film Festival, Edinburg Short Film Festival, and was awarded the Tarkovski Grant.

Cotton Fever Short Proof of Concept on Vimeo

The Community

In almost every American city, there is a place where we attempt to isolate the dispossessed and addicted. In Boston, blocks from luxury towers downtown, is a neighborhood at the intersection of Melnea Cass Boulevard and Massachusetts Avenue (often referred to as Mass and Cass, Methadone Mile, and Recovery Road). It’s a tent city and open-air drug market, where many of the city's homeless and addicted population has been pushed. This area, with its own laws and customs, is the beating heart of the Massachusetts opioid epidemic. From the ecstasy of the high, to the shattering low of withdrawal, or the loss of a friend or loved one to an overdose, there is suffering here, but there is also love and hope. Our film will capture the full breadth and humanity of the community of people living and struggling on Mass and Cass, shining a light on an area of the city that has rarely been explored on screen.

Creative Approach

The film will be shot in a gritty vérité style, using natural light and real Boston locations to bring authenticity to the piece. By blending professional actors with emerging talent, Cotton Fever will immerse viewers in the complex world of its characters, offering a filmic experience that is raw, gripping, and real. The film draws on addiction oriented drama-thrillers like Aronofky’s REQUIEM FOR A DREAM and Schatzberg’s THE PANIC IN THE NEEDLE PARK. It also borrows from the naturalistic, intimate, and humane shooting style of Andrea Arnold’s AMERICAN HONEY, the sensitivity and realism of Ramin Habrani’s CHOP SHOP, and the relentlessly propulsive pace of the Safdie Brothers’ GOOD TIME.

Donation

While we’ve raised a portion of our funding, we are seeking additional support to ensure that we can make the film with the integrity and production value it deserves, and so that the film can reach a wider audience and maximize impact.

Any donation, large or small, would be a significant lift to our production.

A donation from you goes towards: feeding and housing our cast and crew, transportation, editing and post production expenses, production gear, music licensing, and production legal.

In return, should you wish to be credited, we will be offering donors a special thanks credit on screen in the film’s end crawl. All donations are tax deductible.

Thank you for considering donating to our film!

Sincerely,
The Cotton Fever Team

In making a donation, you acknowledge that (a) Cotton Fever Film LLC ("Producer") shall own, solely and exclusively, on a perpetual and worldwide basis, the entire copyright (and all extensions and renewals of copyright) in and to the film, "Cotton Fever" ("Picture"); and (b) the donation is a non-recoupable grant to Producer for the sole purpose of making the Picture and you, the donor, shall have no claim to the Picture or any proceeds or revenue it might generate.