Yes, Mistress
SYNOPSIS
■ YES, MISTRESS is a character-driven narrative centred around Andi, a mild-mannered international student with dreams of being an astrophysicist. Except, through an uncharacteristic oversight, she overstays her visa and faces an impossible choice: go “home” to nothing, stay as an illegal or get married. In a desperate move, she enters into a tenuous green card marriage with her friend with benefits, the guy she wants who doesn’t want her back. To pay for this tangled arrangement, Andi learns just how far she will go - literally into the bowels of a BDSM dungeon - to keep her immigration status and hold on to the life she wants.
Yes, Mistress is fiscally-sponsored by Entertainment 2 Affect Change, a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization.
All donations receive a tax receipt.
DIRECTOR’S STATEMENT
■ This film was born out of two experiences in my life that have significantly shaped me: my brief, unfulfilled exploration of being a dominatrix, and my much longer 16-year span as an immigrant in the US. While these two worlds are starkly separate, I kept thinking about their intersections. Both groups are marginalised, misunderstood, fetishised, judged, and often vilified. For years, I kept wondering how I could marry - no pun intended - these two halves of myself to tell a deeply human story. Otherness has also always lived at the forefront of my work – women behaving badly is a close second - but I wanted to eschew the headlines and tell a story everyone can see themselves in. A story about unrequited love, about perseverance, about a woman discovering her strength and choosing herself. I wanted to slice through the news and remind the audience that immigrants, whatever their path, are just people, who are often smart, capable, hardworking and good, who just want a better life and the chance to live their dreams. If those headlines are the sledgehammer, then this film is a scalpel, a sharp, taut love letter to immigrants, and anyone else in the margins.
~ KACI HAMILTON
FEATURED CAST
■Denis Patrick Seamus O'Hare is an American actor, singer, and author noted for his award-winning performances in the plays Take Me Out and Sweet Charity, as well as portraying vampire king Russell Edgington on HBO's True Blood. He is also known for his supporting roles in Charlie Wilson's War, Milk, Changeling, and Dallas Buyers Club. In 2011, he starred as Larry Harvey in the first season of FX’s American Horror Story, for which he received a Primetime Emmy Award nod for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Miniseries or a Movie. He returned to the show as Spalding in American Horror Story: Coven and once more as Stanley in American Horror Story: Freak Show, which garnered his second Primetime Emmy Award nomination.
■ Kaci Hamilton is a Jamaican actor, writer, producer, and director. Select credits include the AFI Fest short In Foreign, and Getaway and The Dying Cowboy. Her first short, Toast, was selected for the SmartPhilm Festival and the Royal Cocoa International Film Festival, and shortlisted for the Pebbles Underground Film and Video Art Festival, SmaphoFilm International Smartphone Film Festival, and the Mykonos Biennale. Currently she can be seen in commercial spots for Lexus and E*TRADE. As a screenwriter, her work has received accolades from multiple labs and fellowships, including Stowe Story Labs and the SAGIndie Screenwriting Fellowship. She is currently the recipient of the 2025 inaugural AMC Networks Athena Emerging Writers Fellowship.
■ Caledonia Wilson is an actor, songwriter, and Fulbright scholar based in Los Angeles. She began her career in the Twin Cities theatre scene, acting at the Guthrie, Gremlin, and Mixed Blood. After completing a Fulbright in mathematics in Budapest and publishing her research in a national journal, she moved to L.A. to pursue film. In addition to acting and math, she studied Arabic and fine art for over a decade. She loves playing self-destructive valedictorians. She also enjoys serving as a script supervisor, a role that has taught her the importance of technical specificity in an actor's performance. Most days you can find her playing guitar or sitting in traffic, eating string cheese.
■ Jeff Torres is a Mexican-American actor known for his hilarious take on Tarzan in Geico's Super Bowl commercial, and as Stubbs in Fox's baseball drama, Pitch. Torres also stars alongside Malin Ackerman, Jerry O'Connell, and Rob Corddry in The Donor Party and is in Home Delivery alongside Rainn Wilson and Donald Faison.
DONATION DETAILS
■ TIERS + PERKS
■ The "SUB"
Donation: $100 - $999
In Jamaica we say “every mikkle mek a mukkle”. Every bit helps!
What’s included:
~SOCIAL MEDIA SHOUTOUT: A public thank you on social media
■ The "CLIENT"
Donation: $1000 - $4999
A vital part of the equation, you are cementing your presence as a patron of the arts.
What’s included:
~IMDb CREDIT: “Special Thanks”
~ADVANCED SCREENER: A digital download of the film to watch before public release.
~Everything included in the "Sub" tier
■ The "DOM(ME)
Donation: $5000 - $9,999
The other half, you are officially a film producer, a core member of the fam and affirmation that this story is vital.
What’s included:
~IMDb CREDIT: Associate Producer
~THE SCRIPT: A bound and signed copy of the shooting script.
~SPECIAL DONOR SCREENING: two tickets to a special private screening in Los Angeles to celebrate the film and see your name on the big screen.
~Everything included in the "Client" tier
■ The "MISTRESS/MASTER"
Donation: $10,000+
You are the lifeblood of this production. Your donation is an investment in uplifting immigrant BIPOC and LGBTQ+ voices, and ensuring that the margins become the mainstream. You will contribute to gender parity on this film, paying the cast and crew a living wage and guaranteeing that this film will be made.
What’s included:
~SINGLE CARD IMDb CREDIT: Your name appears alone in the opening credits as Executive Producer
~SET VISIT: Come to set and see how the magic happens with a seat in "Video Village"
Everything in the "Dom(me) tier
■ WAYS TO DONATE
Don’t need a tax receipt?
Send a Zelle!
