A stop motion animation about what lies in wait.

Written and Directed by Miceal O'Donnell

Produced by Zachary Michel

Cast

• TBA - Mother
• TBA - Cindy/Daughter
• TBA - Monsters

Premiered at 2025 Sidewalk Film Festival

"Heart Attack!" is a paper puppet stop motion animation about a Man whose reality is subject to the whims of those around him. Inspired by Plato's allegory of the cave, wherein we examine reality against our perception and interpretation of it.

Written and Directed by Miceal O'Donnell

Music by MassiveDadMan

Produced by Zachary Michel

Supported by the Saul Zaentz Innovation Fund

In collaboration with producing partner Leah Clare Michaels.

A young Ojibwe writer, under pressure to complete his first novel, becomes the lens for a broader story: how Indigenous culture survives in an era where tradition and technology collide, and where authentic voices compete with distorted media portrayals.

This hybrid documentary film follows Shaawan, a young Ojibwe writer at the threshold of artistic breakthrough. Recently awarded the Rubys Artist Grant and newly signed with a literary agent, Shaawan embodies both the promise of an emerging voice and the heavy pressure of expectation. Every page of his unfinished manuscript carries the tension of opportunity and risk: will he be able to finish a novel that reflects his truth without buckling under expectation?

Set in the present day across the landscapes of Ojibwe life—family, community, and the solitary rhythms of writing—the film begins in an observational mode. With quiet intimacy, it portrays Shaawan’s daily negotiations between creative work and cultural responsibility. His story becomes a lens through which we witness the continuity of Ojibwe culture, and the fragility of its survival after centuries of erasure and distortion.

But this is not a story told only in the present tense. Interwoven into the documentary fabric are images of how Native identity has been historically depicted: outdated textbooks, Western films, early cartoons, and modern social media feeds. One moment a black-and-white Western plays on an old television, cowboys and “Indians” frozen in caricature; the next, Shaawan himself sits in that frame—modern, quiet, creative—embodying everything absent from those stereotypes. These juxtapositions invite the audience to ask: what matters more, the lived culture, or the culture refracted back through media?

The film further pushes form through supplemental animation. Early sequences use handmade stop-motion puppets, evoking tactile traditions of storytelling—each frame imperfect, crafted, alive. As the narrative progresses, this aesthetic gradually shifts toward digital gloss and hyper-slick motion graphics, mirroring the encroaching influence of technology in both Shaawan’s life and in cultural representation more broadly.

Midway, the documentary itself fractures into hybrid storytelling. Shaawan is “pulled” into a surreal narrative passage, trapped inside a social media feed of kaleidoscopic digital imagery. Here, form reflects feeling: the anxiety of external voices, the claustrophobia of expectation, the struggle to preserve authorship against algorithmic noise. This experiment is not a departure from truth, but an embodiment of it—the lived pressure of an Indigenous artist in today’s media landscape.

The story eventually returns to sincerity. Shaawan reappears at his desk, still wrestling with words, still holding the possibility of a novel that resists both erasure and distortion. His journey does not resolve with triumph, but with endurance: the recognition that storytelling itself is an act of cultural survival.

Contributors to this narrative include a lineage of Native mentors and voices. Shaawan’s aunt, Pulitzer-winning novelist Louise Erdrich, offers a living legacy of literary resistance. Lily Gladstone appears as a personal mentor and symbolic bridge between Indigenous authenticity and mainstream visibility. Elders, peers, and cultural workers lend context, showing that Shaawan’s work is not solitary but part of a larger web of survival and resilience.

By blending documentary sincerity with hybrid experimentation, this film transcends biography. It is a meditation on cultural survival, the power of story as resistance, and the fragile, urgent task of writing Indigenous futures into being.
 

I produced Little Doors (feature film), a story set amid a mundane apocalypse of unknown origin. The story follows May and Dean, two unlikely lovers, as they navigate the steady unraveling of society around them. The film explores what it means to be human, to be connected, and to truly feel. May's struggle to connect and access her inner self becomes corporeally actualized when a little door appears on her torso. Sounds can be heard on the other side, but who is it and what do they want?

As a producer on Little Doors, I played a key role in multiple areas of production, ensuring a seamless process from pre-production to wrap.

I played the lead role of Henry, one half of a troubled couple who decided the best way out of their desperate living situation is to execute a risky and lethal bank heist. As they struggle to agree on what to do next, the couple questions one another's loyalty, trust, and love. Shot on location in Brooklyn, New York, the film is in post-production and slated for release in mid-2025.

I am an emerging filmmaker inspired by the neurodivergent experience. I aim to capture the multitudinous ways in which different neurological abilities shape the human experience through both dramatic and comedic storytelling. I have released a series of shorts on social media drawing attention to ADHD and am taking my latest short film, a dark comedy titled He’s a Big Boy Now, to the festival circuit.

I was inspired to write and direct He's a Big Boy Now by my personal experience with ADHD and the mental unmooring that can happen when losing one's job. While the character of Sean may not be anyone's vision of a best friend or favorite son (he has a lot of growth to go through before that can happen), his experiences mirror my those of my family and my own and are largely born from the challenges that come with undiagnosed ADHD. I wanted to capture that reality in its messiest, and most darkly comedic, form.

My next projects will continue to explore themes of growth and the dialectical relationship between mental health and neurodivergence and mental illness.

I am the co-founder and President Emeritus of Charm City Fringe (CCF). CCF produces an annual performing arts festival in Baltimore that unites people through art, builds community, provides a place for weird, and empowers artists in producing bold, fun entertainment.

Charm City Fringe, Inc. is a nonprofit that develops, showcases, and celebrates new and innovative theatre and performing arts in Baltimore. We aim to connect and elevate the theater community, engage existing audiences, attract non-traditional theatergoers, and reach out to under-represented communities. The Charm City Fringe Festival, founded in 2012 in Baltimore, Maryland, provides a platform for artists to elevate their work and reach new audiences, while eliminating obstacles and allowing audiences to discover and explore new artists and works. The Festival is run by a dedicated cadre of volunteers.

I co-produced this annual collaborative film concept. Flipping the script on traditional filmmaking, we hire professional composer Rick Szybowski to create a custom score for the short film program in the Charm City Fringe Festival. Filmmakers are then recruited to write and direct an original film using the same identical score. This pushes filmmakers into new territory, requiring them to build their work around the beats and emotions indicated by the composer. Notable participants include filmmakers Anthony Oberbeck and Ryan McGlade.