Synopsis: 30ish siblings Michael, Ellie, and James drive to their family cabin to visit their parents Jonathan and Maddie. But when their mom and dad unexpectedly announce their divorce, chaos ensues.
Director Bios: STEVE KNISS is an award-winning independent filmmaker and Assistant Professor at Western Carolina University. He toured nationally with his short film, Rear View, winner of Best Short Film at Lake Michigan Film Festival and Best Student Film at Big Picture Film Festival. He also has worked as a 1st AD on several film projects of varying length and scale that have screened around the world. When not working on films or teaching, he can likely be found alongside his wife and two sons, probably cheering on his beloved White Sox, Bears, or Bulls, in spite of their often-losing ways.
JOHN KLEIN is a happily married father of three, cinematographer, director, producer, screenwriter, lover of dogs, Instagram addict, and all-around joyful dude. He has shot projects of all shapes, sizes, and budgets all over the world, from sweeping documentaries to micro-budget thrillers. And through his former production company Glass City Films, he successfully raised over $35k in funds through Kickstarter twice: once for his second feature film as director, the acclaimed post-apocalyptic horror film Chrysalis, which premiered to worldwide distribution in 2014, and again in 2016 for the ambitious short film Limerence. His award-winning short film Static Space, which he co-directed with writer Kate Black-Spence, screened at over 40 festivals. He currently teaches digital media and film production at Elmhurst University.
JOHN and STEVE met at DePaul University’s School of Cinematic Arts in the MFA program and promptly became fast friends and collaborators – Steve as a director and John as a DP, Steve as a 1st AD and John as a producer or director, and so on. During the height of COVID, they began collaborating on feature-length screenplays, and birthed the script for Never Not Yours as a challenge: to write something that they could film together…in two weeks or less. This film serves as that proud co-directorial debut.
Directors Statement: “As both husbands and parents of young (but growing) children, both of us lately find ourselves at this generational crossroads where we can feel – and see – ourselves aging more with every passing year, the receding hairlines and greying beards in the mirror a cruel reminder. There’s also the constant reminder that life never gets “easy,” or that maybe your parents never really had it all figured out and were winging it just as much as you are now. Sometimes things need to break so you can rebuild.
We started this creative journey from an idea – what would it be like for three adult siblings (all stumbling their own ways through adulthood) to be faced with the prospect of their parents divorcing? How could they – and we – experience connection amidst the struggles of separation?
Out of that, Never Not Yours was born.
It was always our goal to involve our actors in as much of the creative process as possible, so one by one, we reached out to our ideal cast: “a lot story-wise is still to be worked out” to Timmy Hart Barron; “it’s been quite the world since we last crossed paths” to John Lister; “we’d love to hear any thoughts you have about the story” to Laura T. Fisher; “very compressed, both in size and timeline” to Angela Morris; and finally, “you own this as much as we do” to Josh Bywater. We reached out to only five actors. Incredibly, they all said yes.
Across the next several months, we met with our actors several times, sometimes over breakfast, sometimes for a quick Zoom. We learned what challenged them, what inspired them, what moved them (as characters and as people)…and with an ever-evolving script, we were able to add a bit of them to every character. Yes, the characters all have different names, but we’d be lying if we said we didn’t just create a new family, made up of John, Laura, Josh, Angela, and Timmy.
That family grew to encompass our small, incredibly close-knit crew – our production designer Aaron who also operated the B-camera, our hair and makeup wizard Henri, our sound guru Kevin, our production coordinator Lindsay, and our jack-of-all-trades COVID officer Jennifer. For just over a week, we all stayed at our filming location together – a cabin in the woods in Nashville, Indiana – and found out just how much we were capable of, and how much we needed each other.
Never Not Yours isn’t a film about the dissolution of a marriage after decades of building a family. It’s an exploration of identity, and how it shifts with time. It’s about the work you put in to make your life better, even when you may not know what waits for you around the next corner. And it’s about finding yourself again when everything feels wrong. Sometimes, it takes making a radical change in your life to set yourself on a new path. Other times, it takes a cast of 5, a crew of 7, and 8 magical days in Indiana to make a new family of your own.”
~ Steve and John
