Courtney Sanello

Based on the 2019 documentary film "Thariode" by Nirmal Baby Varghese.

Some summers change you. Others reveal who you've been all along. In late-90s Pittsburgh, three inseparable friends - Ryan, Nora, and Milo - run a low-key weed operation out of their basement. Ryan and Nora are a couple on the surface, but underneath, Nora and Milo are entangled in a secret, slow-burning affair. Tensions simmer as the trio drifts through a haze of half-baked dreams and loyalty tests, each of them chasing something they can't quite name.

A desperate and hungry reporter bites into a story bigger than they can chew; when writing a piece about a mysterious recluse who has moved Upstate and made the village cow his wife.

In the surreal world of First Refusal, we follow the emotional journey of a young girl who grapples with grief, forced to confront the pain of loss head-on. Burdened by the recent passing of her beloved brother, she is haunted by the memories of their shared past, all within a unique sanctuary of her own design– a memory palace where she has trapped her brother’s spirit. Within this ethereal realm, the boundaries of reality blur as she relives cherished moments they once shared.

In the surreal world of First Refusal, we follow the emotional journey of a young girl who grapples with grief, forced to confront the pain of loss head-on. Burdened by the recent passing of her beloved brother, she is haunted by the memories of their shared past, all within a unique sanctuary of her own design– a memory palace where she has trapped her brother’s spirit. Within this ethereal realm, the boundaries of reality blur as she relives cherished moments they once shared.