Shit Year
Cam Archer, 2010

Catalog No.: FTF-021
Length: 95 minutes

Renowned actress Colleen West (Ellen Barkin) aban­dons her suc­cess­ful career for a secluded life in the hills. But the quiet and peace of mind she longed for is dis­rupted by the noisy con­struc­tion of neigh­bor­ing hous­ing devel­op­ments. Before long, Colleen dis­cov­ers that she really can’t stand her­self now that she has given up the only thing that she has ever truly been pas­sion­ate about.

As an alter­na­tive to iso­la­tion, she reluc­tantly befriends her jubi­lant, whim­si­cal neigh­bor (Melora Wal­ters) and recon­nects with her estranged brother (Bob Ein­stein) who drops by unan­nounced after hear­ing about her retire­ment. Haunted by lone­li­ness and past desires, Colleen begins to feel as if she has lived her life through the char­ac­ters she has played on stage and screen. Ulti­mately, she is forced to con­front loss, her fail­ures and mis­takes, by reliv­ing a recent affair with younger actor Har­vey West (Luke Grimes) whom she met dur­ing her final stage per­for­mance. Real­ity becomes insep­a­ra­ble from Colleen’s unhinged obses­sions in a hal­lu­ci­na­tory strug­gle to accept her own vul­ner­a­bil­ity and reclaim herself.