Two directionless sisters brave a cross-country road trip to rescue their grandmother from a COVID outbreak at her nursing home. 'Stop and Go' was f/k/a 'Recovery' during its 2021 festival run.
PR: R&CPMK, Daniel Coffey and Emily Maroon
Sales: XYZ Films, Pip Ngo
Mallory Everton
Stephen Meek
Whitney Call
Mallory Everton
Babetta Kelly
Scott Christopherson
Abi Nielson Hunsaker
Mallory Everton
Whitney Call
Stephen Meek
Anne Sward Hansen
Julia Jolley
80 min
It’s February 2020. Sisters Jamie and Blake Jerikovic have big dreams of what lies ahead this year—world travel, family vacations, buying stock in airlines and hotels. Jamie has won over her fourth grade class by adopting Bert and Ernie, two pet mice, and Blake has finally gone on a decent date, mainly composed of a 6-hour bounce house makeout witnessed by multiple families.
Then the most historic of buzzkills comes barrelling in—COVID-19. Life, and all its beautiful plans, comes to a sudden standstill. What even matters? Why even care? How long has my tampon been in? Two days? No one knows.
Jamie buries herself in mundane tasks, while Blake spaces out on the toilet for two hours at a time—neither one dealing well with the end of their professional/social/romantic lives. The sisters then discover a week-old letter informing them of a COVID outbreak at their beloved grandma’s nursing home in Washington. They call the facility and realize the place is a warzone, with high death tolls and a frazzled staff. Jamie and Blake immediately reach out to their
sister Erin, who lives close to Nana, only to discover that Erin has taken advantage of ridiculously cheap cruise prices and is out at sea. Erin assures her sisters she’ll be back to pick up Nana in three days when her very safe cruise (that stocks soap in “almost all of the bathrooms”) has ended. Jamie and Blake realize they’ll have to road trip from New Mexico to Washington as fast as they can to save Nana from their infected, oblivious sister.
Along the way, the girls sort through frantic calls about randy grandpas, surprise mice babies, and toilet dick pics, all while trying to beat Erin to the nursing home before she stumbles off her COVID death cruise and inadvertently murders every old person inside. In order to save their Nana, Jamie and Blake must dig deep into reserves they didn’t know they had, and remember what it’s like to care, to try, and to think about putting deodorant on again.
Just kidding. There was no deodorant in the making of this film.
Mallory Everton
Director, Writer
Mallory graduated from BYU with a BFA in film. She’s best known for being one of the original writer-actors on the sketch comedy show Studio C and for her role in the Purple Mattress Raw Egg Test commercial. She also co-founded JK! Studios (where she writes and acts in comedic web series) and performed on NBC’s Bring the Funny. She loves good food as well as writing, playing, and directing feral women.
Whitney Call
Writer
Whitney received an MFA in creative writing while writing and acting in Studio C. She, alongside Mallory, wrote the web series Freelancers and Loving Lyfe for JK! Studios, on top of multiple sketch series. She’s refused to take the pandemic lying down and is newly expert at pottery, crystals, and dying her own hair.
Stephen Meek
Director
Stephen studied international relations, but veered into film after writing, directing, and performing in BYU’s sketch comedy group, Divine Comedy, and later Studio C. He has directed, produced, and starred in many JK! web series such as Freelancers and Evening Plans. When not directing, Stephen loves playing with his and Whitney’s three sons—all toddlers, no multiples. It’s a true circus.
Brenna Empey
Director of Photography
Brenna earned her bachelor’s degree in media arts before launching full-time into the film and television industry, working as a camera assistant for Netflix, National Geographic, BBC America, Adidas, and Ubisoft — as well as BYUtv’s Studio C and several feature films. A relative newcomer to cinematography, she draws inspiration from everyday life and light around the world, as well as in her mountain hometown of Salt Lake City. As director of photography, she’s passionate about creating images that are altogether engaging, beautiful, and full of story. When she isn’t on set, you can find her skiing and backpacking the Wasatch mountains or spending time with friends.
Scott Christopherson
Producer
Scott was one of ten documentary filmmakers featured in Variety Magazine’s “Docu-makers to Watch” list in 2015. His debut feature film, Peace Officer, won both the Grand Jury and Audience Awards for best documentary at the SXSW Film Festival. Scott’s films have played at Hot Docs, Sheffield, Full Frame, Doc NYC, Montclair, Camden, Traverse City, New Zealand International, Melbourne International, Stockholm Independent and the Sundance Film Festival. Most recently he produced a fiction feature, The Killing of Two Lovers, that premiered at Sundance in the NEXT category in 2020. He is head of the non-fiction/ documentary area in the film department at BYU.
Babetta Kelly
Producer, UPM
Since graduating with a BA in Media Arts in 2012 with an emphasis in writing and directing, Babetta has worked on Grace Notes with Elaine Bradley, drummer of Neon Trees, and produced content for JK Studios. She has traveled throughout Canada and the U.S. to help produce beautiful campaigns for HearingLife, an international healthcare group, and spent time working at the Laycock Center for Creative Collaboration.
Abi Nielson Hunsaker
Producer
Since completing her BA in Media Arts, Abi has been working full time as a creative producer for Utah-based production company, Sorø Films. She assistant produced for the Sundance 2020 premiere of The Killing of Two Lovers and is currently producing a documentary feature and a documentary series, both set to release late 2021. In addition to film, her experimental audio drama Radioland debuted in September 2019. Abi’s #1, though, is absurd comedy. And Buglesä.