Adverse Effects

Pre-production

The story of Adverse Effect exposes a truth in a system where disabled people are used as a novelty or as marketing props by doctors and big corporations.

This creeping thriller taps into our fear of losing autonomy. It’s about finding your voice in a world that makes us all feel small.

Imagine GET OUT from a disabled person’s perspective.

Wes is disabled man who uses a wheelchair and wins a dream job at a pharmaceutical company. When Wes arrives at Pharmagen, he’s assigned a huge ADA compliant office. His coworkers are helpful but he’s creeped out by their obsessive tolerance of his disability. His boss, Dr. Byron, is a seemingly well-meaning man, but Wes soon discovers his ulterior motives.

Wes and his fiance, Kelly, meet an ex employee, Jonathan, also confined to a wheelchair. Jonathan uses a ventilator and can't speak except through a computer speech box (like Stephen Hawking). Jonathan meets with Wes privately and types “HELP ME,” but the words are quickly erased and replaced with a common greeting. Someone is overwriting his voice.

Later, Wes discovers secret archival security camera footage of the company testing drugs on unwilling subjects, including Dr. Byron's own son. Wes is next. Desperate, but determined, Wes discovers evidence in Dr. Bryon’s files that points back to Nazi research nearly a century old… as Wes tries to escape, he is knocked out.

Wes wakes up on a surgical table. Dr. Byron is about to cut him open, as part of his research on human genomic purity, as in Nazi-Germany, and he sees disabled people as a burden to society. Including his own son. Dr. Byron believes he’s creating a “healthier” society and thanks Wes for his support in this research. After all, they are changing humanity for the better.

Just as Wes is about to be sliced open, he is saved by his fiancé Kelly. Now, they must try to free the other disabled people.

Will they be able to escape Dr. Bryon in time?

In 2018, Michael wrote and directed the independent TV pilot “Manny Fantasma”, which premiered at the Santa Monica Film Festival that year, garnering the Emerging Director Award. It has since screened at over a dozen festivals worldwide, picking up several awards, including the Los Angeles Film Awards' Best Web/TV Pilot. The following year, Michael directed the feature length drama “The Forbidden Wish", starring Sammi Rotibi (Django Unchained) and Johnny Berchtold (Gaslit). It was distributed by Conduit Now in 2021, available on Amazon and other major streaming platforms.

Michael was born with a rare physical disability which confines him to an electric wheelchair. His work is often centered around the themes of disability awareness and the human experience of being a minority. He often highlights disability, LGBTQ+, and race inequality using empathy and deep self reflection of the human spirit.

Gabriel is an award winning queer Cinematographer based in Los Angeles, and working globally, focusing most of her time in LA, NYC, NC, Ohio, and Boston. Gabriel attended graduate school at Chapman University's Dodge College of Film and Media Arts and received her Masters degree in Film Directing in 2016. She believes firmly that art can change the world, and is the best way to communicate with the public at large. Her goal is to make social justice films that move people to activism and inspire youth. She has shot feature films, short films, commercials, documentaries, and music videos. She is a writer and poet, who has been published in magazines and books, and attended The South Carolina Governor's School for the Arts and Humanities for Creative Writing.

After that she went to Ohio University where she studied Film (with an emphasis in cinematography) and History. She cares greatly about each story she works with, and this love is what drives her decisions. She strives to make the films she needed when she was young.