BUGGY: A Short Film

• • 3ARTS MATCH
  • 200% contributed

STRETCH GOAL!!! Thanks to our community of friends, family, and indie film advocates, we’ve been able to reach our original goal of $6,000—and so quickly! We’re so grateful and moved by the level of support. We have 48 days on the clock and we want to use that time to get to 12,000 dollars. That is 60% of our projected budget which we designed with equity in mind. Your generosity will help us pay actors and crew what they're worth. Join us in this next push to make Buggy a reality!!

BUGGY, a short film, tells the story of an ambitious theater major who finds out she’s pregnant the night before her final college performance. Buggy must find a ride to her abortion, endure the inane positivity of her understudy, and evade protestors...all before call time. Motivated by a recent six-week abortion ban in their home state, Hart Lang and Mary Tilden wrote BUGGY as a way to tell a character-focused story about a young artist’s pursuit of her dreams and the obstacles that arise as she navigates restrictive cultural forces and healthcare policies. Your donation will support an independent film project that tells a nuanced, timely, funny story of abortion access in a red state.

About This Project

The idea for BUGGY came when a member of director Mary Tilden’s family experienced a life-threatening emergency during her pregnancy and, as a resident of Georgia, was unable to receive treatment in her home state. She had to drive 6 hours to North Carolina to receive the medical care she needed to survive. Though the topic of abortion feels political, the truth is that it is personal and contextual.

Stories like this are becoming more common. But a story that isn’t often told is one about a person who does get the care they need, even when it’s not a life-threatening situation. What if someone follows all the rules, gets to the clinic before the “deadline”, and makes it back in time for their performance that night? South Carolina is full of young artists, people with dreams and goals, but we know that is not how the rest of the country sees us. It was important for us to tell a story about people who, while having to confront hard choices at every turn, still choose themselves and the life they want.

Mary Tilden, a Chicago-based filmmaker and director, looped in Hart Lang, a childhood friend and longtime collaborator, to help write the script for BUGGY. Five drafts later, this campaign is a launching point for the development of the film, which will shoot in Mary and Hart’s home state with a combination of collaborators from both Chicago and South Carolina. We are partnering with filmmakers at the University of South Carolina and Chicago-based RM. 19 for production and casting support.

Funds from this campaign will support equitable pay for our team of highly skilled creatives as well as material production needs like equipment and location costs. With films on OTV streaming platform and Omeleto shorts, director Mary Tilden has gained a solid understanding of the film festival and distribution possibilities for short films. BUGGY is an excellent fit to be programmed at festivals that are Southern-focused, women-focused, and queer-focused.

The film has rich characters, stunning visuals, and a theatrical setting for our team to sink their teeth into. After the festival run, the film will be available to stream for anyone unable to attend a festival. 

As we seek to tell a story that addresses the lack of resources available to people in reproductive health and sexual education, we are confronted with the lack of institutional support for independent filmmakers who want to tell these kinds of stories. Your support helps us close this gap.

Thank yous

Contribute any amount or choose from the levels below.

• $25
  Social Media Shout Out & Thank you ($25.00 is tax deductible.)
• $50
  Above + Your Name in the Film Credits ($50.00 is tax deductible.)
• $100
  Above + Link to a private early screener of the film ($100.00 is tax deductible.)
• $250
  Above + Your name is included as a cameo in the movie ($250.00 is tax deductible.)
• $500
  Above + Choice between a Storytelling Coaching with with Hart Lang, Acting Coaching with Mary Tilden or a producing consultation session with Rm. 19 productions ($450.00 is tax deductible.)
• $1000
  Above + Associate Producer Credit ($950.00 is tax deductible.)
• $2500
  Above + Executive Producer Credit ($2450.00 is tax deductible.)

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Mary Tilden

Make a Wave Artist

Mary Tilden is a queer, Southern-born writer, director, actor, producer, and educator. Past work as an actor includes The Wolves at Goodman Theatre, which won a 2018 Jeff Award for Best Ensemble and Athena at Writers Theatre in the titular …

View Mary Tilden's profile

• 1 update
• 120 supporters

• Update 1: The Final 7 Days of our Fundraiser Are Here!

  Posted on May 28, 2026

  

   

  Dear Buggy-heads*, 

  *Bug-nation?, Buggymeisters?, FoBs (friends of Buggy)? We're workshopping it!

   

  We wanted to give you a little update about where we're at and what we're looking forward to.

   

  Thinking towards late August when we'll be filming in South Carolina, we've put out a crew call and are sifting through resumes and setting up interviews for a production designer, set designer, script supervisor and more (full crew call on insta @buggyshortfilm). If you know anyone great who works out of or near Columbia, SC, send them our way! We're also very close to publishing a casting call and we'll be working with Local Cinema Studios to get the word out. 

   

  Our other big task on the production side right now is location scouting. Mary was able to do some good work on that front last month when she was home for a visit and we're still on the lookout for a place to film the exterior of the clinic, a coffee shop interior, and a good porch for a college party scene. 

   

  Meanwhile, back in Chicago, we are fundraising our behinds off. We have seven days left with our fundraiser live on 3Arts. If you can think of anyone to share the project with who is interested in indie film, abortion access, or funny/dark/heartwarming coming of age stories, please share the project with them. Thanks to you (and thank you, thank you, thank you), we've raised $8,640. If we can get to 10,000 before June 4th, we'll have half our budget in the bank. 

   

  Next up on the fundraising side is a live event at third space in Chicago on June 18th at 7pm. If you're in the area, come on through. We're asking our extremely talented pals to remount performances from their careers before age 22. Some features in the line-up: Jessica Anne, Aja Singletary (with her world famous Notes on a Scandal Monologue), Room 19 favorites Daisy Allen and Edwina Luokkala-Burckhardt, and our own extraordinary producer Jamie Kreppein. Tickets are live now. 

   

  Thank you again for your support. 

   

  Love, 

  The Buggy Team

   

   

• Thank you to the following for contributing to 3Arts with the recommendation that we support this project.

  • Rie McGwier

  • Kimmy Shiller

  • Kirby Aull

  • Elaina Reese

  • Cassidy Tee

  • Meagan OKeefe

  • Britt Anderson

  • Mary Tilden

  • Victoria Nassif

  • Rebecca Anderson

  • Devon Moffat

  • BRADFORD STEVENS

  • Natalie Younger

  • Natalie Joyce

  • Katherine Bourne Taylor

  • Will Sonheim

  • Nick DiMaso

  • Kyle Leland Cullerton

  • E Lape

  • Averill Tilden

  • Aaron Wertheimer

  • Emily Levi-D'Ancona

  • Zach Scheitlin

  • Ashley McFaul-Erwin

  • Sarah Geis

  • Navishti and Varun Das

  • Gracyn Mix

  • garrett kelly

  • Helen Brown

  • Michael Smith

  • Lee Thompson

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  • Lucy Carapetyan

  • Louis Lang

  • Kimberly Mullaney

  • Anonymous Supporter

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  • Justin Flocco

  • Ida Cuttler

  • Laura Knickelbine

  • Amanda MacAllister

  • Cristy Mercier

  • Emily White

  • Liz Shavers

  • Nancy Dinkins

  • Rosie Moan

  • Mary Tilden

  • Mickey O’Sullivan

  • Harison Lott

  • Mic Mccabe

  • Abby Pajakowski

  • Rip and Beth Tilden

  • Tom Tilden

  • Nick Helfers

  • Tara Mallen

  • Heather Vogt

  • Kate Staiger

  • Mary Tilden

  • Bill Vandercook

  • Gay Amberg

  • T Kana Family

  • Mary Tilden

  • Mike Tilden

  • Paul and Pam Northen

  • Averill Tilden

  • Judy Jarvis

  • Valerie Marcil

  • Ethel Weinberg

  • Mary (for Jodie Flickinger) Tilden

  • Kathleen Rooney

  • Shannon Lee

  • Flossie Drociuk

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  • Ann Peebles

  • Ned Baker

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  • Rip and Beth Tilden

  • Breanna Foister

  • Larry Garcia

  • Adrianne Eby

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  • Meagan OKeefe

  • Bud Tibshrany

  • Mary Regalado

  • Mark Tan

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  • Daniel Kessel

  • Louis Lang

  • Josh Carter

  • MariaLuisa Alvarez

  • Jessie Oliver

  • Brandon Cloyd

  • Rebecca Silver

  • Laura McKenzie

  • Elizabeth O'Connell-Thompson

  • James Tilden

  • Jehanne Junguenet

  • Anonymous Supporter

  • Eunice Woods

  • Diane Lee

  • Rie McGwier

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