Press Kit

Logline

After losing her partner, Caleb, to an accidental fentanyl poisoning, Lila begins seeing him in moments throughout her daily life. As her world starts to fracture, she must confront her grief and the possibility of moving forward.

Film Details

Runtime: 12 min 2 sec
Year: 2026
Writer-Director: Chelsey Kaye

Synopsis

Still Here is a short film about Lila, a young artist in Los Angeles who is unable to accept the sudden death of her boyfriend Caleb, who unknowingly ingested fentanyl while using cocaine. In the wake of his death, Lila becomes increasingly disconnected from reality, retreating into vivid dreamscapes where Caleb still exists, flipping pancakes, playing guitar, walking with her through the park. These moments are warm, even beautiful. But they aren’t real.

Her closest friends, Maya and Sam, who were present the night Caleb died, become alarmed as Lila begins to deny the truth entirely. When she insists Caleb is still alive, they intervene, confronting her with the reality she refuses to face: that it was a single, unintentional exposure to fentanyl that took him, and no amount of memory or imagination can bring him back.

Still Here explores the distorted space grief creates, where time collapses, denial becomes survival, and memory feels more vivid than the present. The story builds to a moment of reckoning, where Lila must confront not only Caleb’s death but her own unspoken guilt and helplessness.

In the final scene, she quietly re-engages with the world: pinning a hand-drawn flyer to a café bulletin board, warning others of fentanyl’s presence in street drugs, including a link to access Naloxone. It’s a small act, but a powerful one, rooted in remembrance and harm reduction.

Still Here is a story about memory, grief, and the blurry edge between love and letting go, and the quiet bravery it takes to come back to life.

Director’s Statement

Fentanyl poisoning is now the leading cause of death for people ages 18–45 in the United States, yet most media portrayals focus on trauma, sensationalism, or punishment. Still Here was created to shift that narrative, to spotlight empathy, remembrance, and the quiet, disorienting ripple effects that follow a single loss.

This film doesn’t center the moment of poisoning, it centers the aftermath. It asks: what happens when someone’s world unravels in the silence that follows? How does grief distort time, memory, and even reality? And what does it mean to stay, as a friend, as a witness, when someone you love retreats into that distortion?

As a filmmaker, I’m drawn to stories that live in emotional stillness. Stories that hold beauty and ache in the same frame. Still Here is a quiet refusal to let these losses disappear into silence, or to reduce them to statistics. It’s a space for feeling, for remembering, and for seeing the invisible weight that grief can carry.

Director

Chelsey Kaye is a Colorado-born, Los Angeles–based actor and filmmaker who grew up performing under stage lights and studying the stars. Raised in Boulder, she spent her early years in competitive dance, local theatre, and filling notebooks with stories and scripts. She went on to study both Dance and Astronomy at San Diego State University, because choosing between movement and the cosmos never felt necessary. After moving to LA, Chelsey appeared in a range of short films and television roles before stepping behind the camera. Still Here marks her debut as a writer-director, an emotional, lyrical project that merges her performance background with a longtime love of storytelling. When she’s not on set, she’s probably at a concert, hanging with her two doodle dogs, or figuring out which film to make next.

Cast

Lexi Johnson — Lila
Maximilien Blanc — Caleb
Kaitlin Moore — Maya
Jenny Katrina — Sam

Crew

Writer / Director: Chelsey Kaye
Producers: Chelsey Kaye, Lance Miller, Mike Simmons, Eric Marq
Director of Photography: Grant MacAllister
Editor: Maximilien Blanc
Colorist: Eric McCambridge
Composers: Mike Simmons, Keith Greflein
Sound Designer: Andrew DeRitter
1st Assistant Director: Mike Simmons

Festivals

World Premiere · LA Shorts International Film Festival (August 1, 2026)
Official Selection · Awareness Film Festival (October 15, 2026)
Official Selection · FirstGlance Los Angeles Film Festival (November 2026)

Poster & Stills

Press Contact

stillherefilmteam@gmail.com · Instagram @stillhereshortfilm