Three Sitters
Director
Abigail Holland
Producers
Apoorva Gundeti
Shayan Farooq
Writer
Abigail Holland
Type
Scripted Feature
Status
Pre-Production
The three hopeful theatre kids understand that they have to pull all the stops for their first big audition: babysitting for famous people. Irina, Masha and Olga arrive at a sprawling beach house in North Carolina’s Outer Banks, eager to impress mega producers Twyla and Jack. They’ll also take care of the couple’s only son Saunders, walk the dog Andre, and manage light housework as it comes up. Seeing the opportunity to impress the entertainment power couple and save some cash for a security deposit for a NYC apartment, the girls begin their real task: spend a week showcasing themselves. As the week begins to sour, earnest trying turns into tests of resilience. A movie about waiting, longing, and hoping.
Abigail Holland is a writer, director, and producer for film and theatre, born, raised, and educated in North Carolina. Her work as a writer/director has screened internationally, including Oscar-qualifying festivals like Florida Film Festival and RiverRun, as well as beloved indie festivals such as Brooklyn Film Festival, Defy Film Festival, New/Next, Filmfort, Mimesis Documentary Festival, NFFTY, Sydney Underground, and Motivate Underground. She recently produced Chloe Xtina’s film Of a Sexual Nature, which was commissioned in partnership with Isabella Rossellini and premiered at Mama Farms. She also produced Marcus Fahey’s Daddy is a Hunter, starring John Ortiz, screening at FilmQuest and Montclair Film Festival, among others. She traveled to Umbria, Italy to develop Three Sitters at La MaMa’s international writer’s retreat, with full support from Kenan Institute. In theatre, she has worked with prominent institutions including MCC, Signature Theatre, Clubbed Thumb, Soho Playhouse, Minetta Lane Theatre, NAMT, TheatreWorks, 24 Hour Plays: Broadway + Nationals, and the North Carolina Symphony. She is a former Peter F. Sloss Fellow at Berkeley Rep and a UNCSA Drama alum. Abigail makes work about bizarre women navigating bizarre circumstances. Three Sitters is her feature debut.
Apoorva Gundeti is an actor, writer, and producer originally from Chicago, and now based in Brooklyn, NY. Through her work, Apoorva strives to share stories that re-envision South Asian representation and female friendship. As an actor, Apoorva has appeared in Jordan Weiss’ HBO Max comedy Sweethearts opposite Kiernan Shipka, in CBS’ FBI: International, and David Mackenzie’s thriller feature film Relay opposite Lily James and Riz Ahmed. As a producer, Apoorva is currently Associate Producer on the upcoming feature film Patient and previously worked on the producing team for dark-comedy My Divorce Party, which won the Audience Choice Award for Best Feature Film at Beverly Hills Film Festival. She also co-wrote and produced award-winning web series Stuck in Reality, which premiered at HollyShorts. Apoorva graduated from The University of Chicago with a B.A. in Cinema & Media Studies. She is represented by MZMGMTNY and Arise Artists Agency.
Shayan Ajmal Farooq is a filmmaker based in New York City, originally from Los Angeles, with roots in Lahore. She has produced, written, and directed a number of independent films that screened at SXSW, Tribeca, Provincetown, Palm Springs, Mama Farm, Woodstock, and The MoMA, among others. She has also produced commissioned work for artists such as J Balvin, Dua Lipa, and Ciara, and clients such as Google, Nike, ESPN, Nissan, and Banana Republic. She produced Anheuser-Busch’s Super Bowl film directed by Rachel Morrison, and also directed social spots for the same campaign. In 2022 she was named artist-in-residence at the Pacific Asia Museum in Los Angeles, where she developed two feature screenplays. She is in development on several feature projects including Strangers From Home, an intimate examination of the Partition of India, I Saw You in the Flood, a feature-length version of Kevin Xian Ming Yu’s SXSW short, and Abigail Holland’s Three Sitters, a North Carolina drama based on Chekhov’s Three Sisters.