MY SUMMER WITH SAM

Two American legends. Two men called Sam. And one summer a boy will remember for the rest of his life.

My Summer with Sam is an independent historical drama set on Mount McGregor, New York, during the summer of 1885 — the final weeks of Ulysses S. Grant's life.

Grant has come to the Adirondacks to finish his memoirs while battling the cancer that is slowly taking his voice and his life. His friend and publisher, Samuel Clemens — better known as Mark Twain — is never far from the story.

And then there is Jack.

A lonely boy whose parents have found work at the nearby Balmoral Hotel, Jack is carrying losses of his own. His father returned from the Civil War with wounds that cannot be seen, leaving a silence between father and son that neither knows how to cross.

When Jack meets Grant, something unexpected happens.

Grant is not a man of many words either. But the silence between them is different. In the last summer of one man's life and a defining summer of one boy's childhood, an unlikely friendship begins.

And then Jack meets Twain.

To Jack, Grant is Sam.
To the world, Twain is Sam Clemens.

Two Sams. One extraordinary summer.

The film is already being made

My Summer with Sam is not a film that exists only as a screenplay, a pitch or a collection of concept images.

Production is underway.

The characters have come to life. Grant Cottage has been painstakingly reconstructed as it appeared in 1885. The long-lost Balmoral Hotel lives again among the Adirondacks. Historical moments have been recreated, including the famous final Grant family photograph taken on the cottage steps.

Most importantly, the emotional heart of the film is already on screen: the relationships between Jack, Grant, Twain and the family surrounding Grant during his final summer.

The film is being created through a combination of traditional filmmaking and editing skills and a new generation of AI filmmaking tools. These tools make it possible for an independent filmmaker to recreate a lost nineteenth-century world with a scope that would once have required an enormous production.

But AI does not make the film by itself.

Every scene still has to be written, researched, designed, directed, generated, selected, edited, scored and finished. And creating a feature-length film at this level requires substantial resources.

Why I'm raising $5,000

The campaign is a completion fund.

The money raised will go directly toward finishing My Summer with Sam: generation and rendering costs for the remaining scenes, final image finishing and upscaling, sound design, music and post-production, and bringing the completed film to festivals and audiences.

The campaign uses Keep It All funding, which means every contribution helps move the film closer to completion, whether or not the full $5,000 goal is reached.

Help bring the summer of 1885 back to life

This is a story about history, but it is also a story about something much smaller and more enduring: the people who enter our lives for a short time and remain with us forever.

Grant has only weeks left.

Jack has an entire life ahead of him.

For one summer, their paths cross.

If this story speaks to you, I would love to have you help me finish it.

— Tali Lotan
Writer / Director / Creator
My Summer with Sam