The Other Hollywood Story

Logline:
A jailed addict hallucinating her mother's 1986 overdose, must forgive the woman who abandoned her—or become her.

Synopsis:
Dragged into a county jail cell, strung out and half-dead, Mia has nothing ahead of her but the shakes, the sweat, and the ghost of a mother she never knew—until the walls dissolve into a dim Roosevelt Hotel room in 1986, Hollywood - where Cynthia writhes on a ruined bed, inches from a newborn baby.

As withdrawal claws Mia under, the past bleeds through in fragments: the baby abandoned in a hotel room drawer, a hotel maid singing a lullaby to the baby in a foreign language, a trick turned fatal, a needle in an alley, a note that reads "I'm sorry" tucked in the folds of the baby’s blanket … Every dark moment in the past syncs with Mia‘s present. Every sweat on Cynthia‘s face mirrors Mia’s… Cynthia, the mother who abandoned Mia as a baby inside a hotel room drawer is the woman Mia is turning into — unless… Mia can do what Cynthia couldn't.

Inside Mia’s cell, a veteran inmate named Jinjee refuses to let Mia disappear into the darkness, screaming for help until she and a cop revive Mia and saves her life.

When the jail doors finally open, Mia walks into the blinding daylight with nothing but the clothes on her back and that crumpled “I’m sorry” note pressed to her palm—her mother's apology, finally received, finally forgiven. She doesn't look back. She walks forward—clean, sober, and free.

*This film is dedicated to the ones who make it out of the throes of addiction and to those who don't.*

Director: Seidy Lopez

Country: United States