Michelle Farrell

Film: Hard City

It could happen in any major city in America, and it does...  On the drug-ridden streets, in the dark, waste filled, desecrate alleys, in the condemned homes of the misfortunate, still consumed with the shadows of despair and isolation, inhabited by lost souls trying to escape a Hard City.

Hard City is any city in America, where sometimes escaping, means delving deeper into the filth and the darkness of seclusion and the coping with hopelessness that life can place in your path.

Matt wants to turn his life around.  He wants a better life for him and his cousins, who are like brothers to him.  He is a recovering addict, dealing with the heavy burden of guilt, consumed by a lifetime of bad decisions and easy way out schemes.  He only knew one way of life, conning, stealing, fencing, and loaning money to thugs and drug dealers as a means of protection, and a way to turn a quick profit, without the guilt of saying he is a drug dealer.  Matt is so determined to make his life anything than what is, he knows the only way out of the Hard City, is to make a lot of money and quick.   And he is obsessed with doing just that, and trusting no one.  Nothing will stand between him and his only way to escape - money.  He takes his own form of violent justice out on those who try to scam him and not pay their depts.  His circle of acquaintances are just as untrusting, scorned, and desperate to escape the Hard City, as Matt.  Which makes them just as ruthless and lethal.

But, Matt meets his match.  Jazzy, raped and abused as a child by her mothers boyfriend, wanted to be loved, but her past led her to a life filled with loving those who just abuse her.  Jazzy is now hard inside.  Her heart surrounded by walls of doubts, succumbed in despair.  Her choices cost her the loss of self-respect, loss in trust and conceding to a life of pleasing men…for a price.

In a place where men pay for the company of women, Jazzy meets Matt.  Matt refuses to buy Jazzy’s company, but instead offers her something she never had from a man, friendship.  Like two destined lost souls, they became intertwined in each other’s uniquely dark worlds, yet find comfort and solace in each other’s arms.  But, trust doesn’t come cheap, and sometimes, someone, has to pay with his or her life before one can trust in love. 

But, when you live in a Hard City, even the truth can be masked by the shadows of lies.

 

Michelle Farrell has soundly established herself in the independent film, video and television industry and is president and CEO of Absolute Independent Pictures. With a career combining over 15 years of experience, Farrell has shot for television projects such as NBC’s The Mission, A&E’s series Airline and Fox’s Classmates. She has served as a camera operator, director, assistant engineer, lighting, and grip on free-lance shoots such as Wheel of Fortune, World Wrestling Federation and many other television projects. Farrell has also gaffed and key gripped for BET’s Tangy Song and Mission of Mercies. She has written, produced, directed and edited, on Final Cut Pro, various other professional projects and knowingly respects the importance of protocol in every position.

Farrell dedicated herself to making her own independent feature films. After years of independent studying and attending The Sheffield Institute, which gave her the first technical knowledge of filmmaking, Farrell went on to write and produce her first full- length feature screenplay, Franky’s Heaven. As the founder of, “We Make It Work Productions,” she assembled a complete independent skilled production team made up of over 350 actors and participants and a 42-member professional movie crew. Such professionals included Judith Rheiner, a 30-year veteran in publicity for motion pictures, Dennis Roberts, a 23-year professional in videography and broadcasting, seven casting companies and an array of others.

Under Farrell’s vision and directorial leadership, Franky’s Heaven later went on to win the prestigious Telly Award for its recognition of distinctive creative work and honoring it’s outstanding film production while proving to the hearts of many that independent filmmaking was Farrell’s passion and calling. She has since went on to shoot many other full-length feature and short films and has worked on a host of other projects.