Rachel Foley

Abstract

The Undertow is the story of Jessa, an ambitious girl with a wry sense of humor, who is living with her single mother. She is a 17-year-old high school swimmer with the potential for a career as a professional swimmer. As the film opens Jessa discovers that she is pregnant. As a young woman and a star athlete, this is one of the worst personal circumstances that Jessa can find herself in. She quickly learns that she has been accepted to a great school on a swimming scholarship, and the decision about whether to keep the baby weighs heavily upon her. She struggles with telling her close friends and family about the pregnancy, and when she does she finds little to no support. To her surprise, her most loathed classmate, Sutton, ends up helping her through the decision making process. Jessa eventually makes a difficult decision and decides to get an abortion in order to move forward with her life in the way she desires.

Library of Congress Subject Headings

Motion picture authorship; Motion pictures--Production and dicrection; Short films--Technique; Swimmers--Drama; Teenage pregnancy--Drama

Publication Date

8-2014

Document Type

Thesis

Student Type

Graduate

Department, Program, or Center

School of Film and Animation (CIAS)

Advisor

Malcolm Spaull

Advisor/Committee Member

Peter Kiwitt

Advisor/Committee Member

Anastasia Cerankosky

Comments

Physical copy available from RIT's Wallace Library at PN1996 .F65 2014

Campus

RIT – Main Campus

Plan Codes

FILMAN-MFA

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