East County

Story
Logline

A sibling reunion turns dreamlike and debaucherous, plunging Brynn into a kaleidoscopic journey through her childhood home as the house she left un-haunts itself.

Synopsis

When a family wedding brings them all back to town, Brynn and her siblings spend the night at their childhood home on the sun-bleached margins of San Diego. While they drink, bicker, and play in the dust, time folds and the back acre becomes a dream terrain. Around forgotten corners, a spectral child hides under a canoe, a donkey appears when summoned, a derelict sailboat becomes an altar for pomegranates—and Brynn confronts the landscape that shaped her.

Part elegy, part exorcism, East County explores what lives in the narrow space between estrangement and belonging.

Pomegranates hanging from bare branches against a dusty backyard sky
Director's
Statement

East County is a dramatized day from my real life. Growing up, I loved my home. I identified with it deeply. But by the time I was actually grown, it was full of ghosts. So when I left, I didn't go back for a long time. The day I finally did, my siblings dragged me down a happy, sloppy, drunken rabbit hole of memory, play, and a kind of devolution. When I woke up the next morning, I wasn't haunted anymore.

My family was cast in key roles to capture a dynamic that is singular and true. We shot in our actual home, in East County San Diego. More than a setting, it's a psychic landscape. The dust, the peeling paint, the backyard shadows all hold histories we can't articulate. They can only be shown. To me, this story serves as a guiding myth—a portal others can take backward and down into their own histories to re-integrate whatever it is they've lost there.

— Layne Deyling
The Film

East County moves through three distinct tones — surreal, grounded, dreamlike. A child's-eye memory, sharp sunlight, a descent into dreamy twilight. Sound is treated as texture: bare feet on hard earth, the clink of glasses, the splatter of spills. This is a film you will taste and smell as you watch.

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Support
the Film

East County is an independent short film currently in post-production and festival-bound. We're raising the final $5,000 to close out production strong—covering sound mix, color, music licensing, and festival submissions.

Every contribution goes directly into the film. If this story resonates with you, we'd be grateful for your support.

Festival submissions begin May 2026