This Time
SEBASTIEN TOBLER
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LOGLINE
Long lost high school sweethearts, Laela and Colin, unexpectedly reunite in Los Angeles 23 years after being separated in Jakarta by the 1998 riots. What begins as a sentimental look back at an exciting upbringing, forces the characters to draw a line between unrequited love and nostalgia.
SYNOPSIS
Laela Sagan, a sculptor, is uninspired and on a deadline for a client. She ventures out into LA for inspiration. Colin Lang, a family man, boxes up his LA home for a move to central Pennsylvania to join his wife Sofia and son Koji. While making donations, Colin and Laela find each other—not only the one who got away, but the one who could’ve been. Laela decides to help him pack so they can catch up. After the riots in Jakarta, her family was evacuated to Singapore; physically safe, but emotionally devastated. Koji’s name comes up. Colin accepts fatherhood, but he envies the single life Laela has. She reassures him that being single at 40 is nothing to envy. They go out to eat in Thai town. The ambiance transports them back in time. They’ve fallen in love again, and they’re no longer hiding it. Back at Colin’s home, they kiss, bringing back a familiar sensation of belonging...But, instead of going any further, they hold each other, prolonging time. The next morning, they finally get the closure they never had when Colin leaves. Laela stays back, maybe she’ll stay in LA after all.
Seastien Tobler . Writer & Director
Sebastien Tobler is a Filipino-Swiss writer-director who grew up overseas, living in seven different countries (Switzerland, Philippines, Poland, Indonesia, Thailand, England, the US) before he was 18. His work is subsequently marked by nostalgia and world-weary characters undone by departure and the passage of time. Armed with a business degree from American University, Sebastien began his career in corporate finance before shifting to strategic marketing and finally to content creation for clients such as Hilton Hotels, The North Face, VISA, and HBO. His videos for the Travel Channel prompted Marie Claire Magazine to name him the top traveler to follow online, leading to the sale of his travel blog to Yahoo! From there, Sebastien dove into music videos, directing pieces for bands such as Grouplove, in order to fund his own narrative projects. Sebastien’s feature script Kamikaze Blue, placed as a finalist in the 2021 WeScreenplay and Stage32 diversity competitions, and his latest short, Joyrider, about a little boy in the midst of leaving his childhood home, recently premiered at the Newport Beach Film Festival.
Theresa Chiu . Producer
Theresa Chiu is a Taiwanese-American writer and producer who champions compelling character-driven storytelling with an eye toward inclusion and social justice. Her award-winning, debut feature film Love Arcadia enjoyed a successful tour on the festival circuit before featuring prominently in Comcast’s Cinema Asian America series and landing distribution with Gravitas Ventures. She has produced multiple shorts, collaborating with Emmy-nominated and first-time filmmakers alike, that have shot both in Los Angeles and overseas. In 2018, she produced The Visit, a supernatural thriller filmed in Taiwan, starring George Young, that earned “Best Short” accolades before getting acquired by ALTER/Gunpowder & Sky. She recently won the Josephson Entertainment Fellowship, a mentorship with acclaimed producer Barry Josephson at the Austin Film Festival. A Duke Blue Devil from Alpharetta, Georgia, Theresa cut her teeth working at Endeavor, CBS Drama Development, and the Center for Asian American Media before shifting her focus to independent cinema.
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