Santa Cruz Film Festival 2009

OFFICIAL SELECTION: NARRATIVE FEATURE JURY COMPETITION

We are thrilled to welcome UCSC Alums Mo Perkins and Tamara Maloney back to Santa Cruz with their first feature film. Winner of the 2009 Slamdance Film Festival’s Grand Jury Award in the Narrative Competition, A Quiet Little Marriage is a cautionary tale of deception, and the gradual unraveling of a young couple’s seemingly ideal relationship.

Dax (Cy Carter) and Olive (Mary Elizabeth Ellis, TV’s It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia) have the picture perfect life; adoring marriage, cute house, cool friends, socially responsible jobs, and frequent lovemaking. They have it all. Or so it appears. Witnessing her Father’s rapid descent into Alzheimer’s Disease triggers a desire in Olive to have a baby and, one night after a dinner party, she announces this to her husband. Dax’s implied troubled childhood and a misdirected sense of global responsibility make him adamantly opposed and unwilling to bring children into this cruel world.

When Dax discovers the deceptive extent to which Olive will go to conceive, he counters with an equally cruel and dangerous strategy. Both thinking their plans working, the nuptials maintain their happy status quo. Slowly, though, their Quiet Little Marriage begins to crumble.