Help us make an animated short film about endometriosis, chronic illness, and the unconditional love of rescue animals.
Casey is a 2D animated short film that tells the story of Addie, a ballet dancer whose career is ruined after she becomes sick with a mystery illness that no doctor can diagnose. When she rescues a stray dog named Casey, he helps to pull her out of her depression and deal with her new normal.
OUR STORY
My name is Perri Cohn, and I am the director of Casey. The story of Casey is based on my life experiences as a woman with endometriosis, a disease that left me bedridden for several years in my early twenties, when doctors were unable to diagnose me. I was finally diagnosed six years ago, and received the correct treatment to regain my health.
My dog Casey was an integral part of my recovery process, giving me unconditional love and emotional support throughout some of the most difficult and painful years of my life. When Casey passed away in September of 2019, I began to work through my grief by turning my own story into an idea for a film.
I brought this story idea to Susie Yoo and Amrita Kalsi, and they decided to collaborate with me on a short that would showcase the importance of dogs as therapy animals, especially for those with a chronic illness. Susie has been involved with animal rescue for many years, and has always been awed by the transformative power of animals and people helping each other navigate life.
The story of Casey demonstrates the strength of the human-animal bond, and how when we rescue an animal, they in turn rescue us. When relentless pain becomes your new normal, it is easy to feel hopeless and let the grief for the loss of your old life consume you. The unconditional love of a dog can pull you back out of the darkness, which is why emotional support animals are an immense help for patients of chronic illness.
Casey also represents the power and resilience of the human spirit when faced with losing a loved one. The loss of a pet is a heart-wrenching but universal experience, and the animals that we love leave an imprint on our hearts forever.
At a clinical level, Casey addresses the serious crisis of endometriosis in our society, which affects 1 in 10 people assigned female at birth, amounting to about 176 million people worldwide.
Endometriosis, or "Endo", is characterized by growths of tissue similar to what is found in the uterus during menstruation, but these growths appear outside of the uterus on other organs, typically in the pelvic and abdominal regions. It can cause severe pain, extreme fatigue, infertility, and a host of other symptoms for those that suffer from it.
The disease is difficult to diagnose because it has no visible external symptoms and is nearly impossible to detect through medical imaging alone, making invasive, expensive surgery the only way to make an accurate diagnosis.
Much of what we know about endometriosis comes from relatively recent breakthroughs, and most medical schools do not adequately address the disease in their curricula. As a result, the disease is widely misunderstood within the medical community, with most doctors assuming that women's severe pain is just perfectly normal menstrual cramps.
Patients with endo can often spend up to fifteen years trying to get a diagnosis, and some never do. Many patients report similar experiences of doctors dismissing them and insisting that they are being overly dramatic about their periods.
My story is like that of so many other women with this disease. I began to notice my symptoms at around the age of 15, but doctors were unable to diagnose me until I was 25. By that point, I had been forced to give up on pursuing a career or performing the most simple physical activity. I spent most days unable to leave bed, but Casey was always by my side.
Once I was finally diagnosed and received surgery to remove the endometriosis, my quality of life vastly improved. After two years of rehabilitative physical therapy, I was able to move to LA and follow my dream of becoming a filmmaker. But had I, my family, my friends, or my doctors, had any real knowledge of endometriosis, I might have been able to receive treatment sooner.
By sharing the story of Casey, we hope to start an open dialogue to raise awareness about endometriosis among medical professionals and the general public, leading to earlier and more effective diagnoses. There have been documentaries and news reports about the struggles of endo patients, but we wanted to take a different approach with our storytelling.
We envision a beautifully animated film about a girl and a dog, with an emotional score to match, in the hopes that it might reach those who would otherwise never have engaged with this issue. Our hope with this film is also to inspire both children and adults to be kind to animals, to recognize that they are capable of unconditional love, and to treasure the gift of a deeply emotional human-animal bond.
This story is very close to our hearts, and we can’t wait to share it with you.
If you would like to support the film, you can donate to our fundraiser at this link.
