Rachel dreams of performing Shakespeare on Broadway. Instead, she’s playing a corpse on television’s latest pulp-fest, Minds of Crime. Rachel is haunted by a deep dissatisfaction that threatens her relationship with her boyfriend David. The experience of playing dead has her questioning the value of living.
DEAD GIRL is a pilot for DEAD GIRLS, the series.
DEAD GIRLS is a dark comedy about a diverse group of women hustling for happiness, all connected by the same insane experience: playing a dead body..
If you’re interested in learning more, feel free to reach out to writer, director, and star Rachel Sweeney at rachelvictoriasweeney@gmail.com.
Dead Girl at Art of Brooklyn
Dead Girl will have its New York premiere at the Art of Brooklyn Film Fest in June. Screening dates and times TBA.
FESTWORKS Interview
Dead Girl was featured in the the FESTWORKS blog! Click the image for Rachel’s opinions on Laura Palmer, Veronica Mars, and sneaking snacks into movie theatres.
Dead Girl at Oxford Film Fest
Dead Girl had its world premiere at the Oxford Film Festival on February 8th, 2019! A huge thanks to the staff and volunteers who made the weekend an incredible experience.
A lot of smart people have written about the Dead Girl phenomenon:
Dead Women, Immigration Stories and Other Fall TV Trends, The Hollywood Reporter
“By my count, of the 15 new broadcast shows that premiered since the Emmys, five gain heat from the funeral pyre for a dead female character never actually introduced as "living" within the show.”
Deadpool 2 Writers Defend Treatment of Female Characters, Vulture
"The plot is fueled by the taking of three female souls, none of whom have much in the way of agency over their fates."
Our Cultural Obsession With ‘Pretty Dead Girls’ Began Long Before ‘Twin Peaks’, Huffington Post
“Do we really privilege women most when they lack agency to such a degree that they lack a pulse?”
How Twin Peaks Gave the Beautiful Dead Girl™ Pop-Culture Currency, Esquire
“Twin Peaks may have introduced the Beautiful Dead Girl trope, but bastardized versions of the original tended to increasingly use slain women as vehicles through which men in power told their stories.”