Izzy Roland Made a Movie — Here's How You Can See It (EXCLUSIVE)

What started as a pandemic project is slowly becoming a reality for Izzy Roland, who has just launched a Kickstarter to fund the post-production of her family film D(e)AD.

The film, which was created, produced, and cast with many of the members of Izzy's immediate family, is a comedic ghost story about a young woman named Tillie (played by Izzy) who grapples with the loss and subsequent haunting of her father.

D(e)AD has a cast including names like Brennan Lee Mulligan, Vic Michaelis, Claudia Lonow, Jonathan Schmock, and more. Ahead of the Kickstarter's launch, Izzy spoke exclusively with Distractify about what it was like to work on a movie so personal with her family, as well as some details for its eventual release.

Izzy and her mom, Claudia, are both executive producers on the film, and she admitted that having your family involved in a project centered around the death of her own dad (and Claudia's late husband) was a bit tricky at times.

"It felt like this is a cool idea when we were in pre-production, and then when we were in actual production, it was like, 'Oh, what have we done?'" she said. "It was like, oh, this is far too real. We should have made this more different."

The production of the film was fully funded by Izzy, her mom, her stepfather, and her husband, Brennan Lee Mulligan (who also has a role in the movie).

"I think there were a lot of moments of us being like, you know, it's an interesting way to process, that's for sure," Izzy joked. "It's like the most expensive therapy session we could have ever made."

Not every family could make fun of the death of a relative that way, but for Izzy, "that is just like my family's language."

"Jokes have always been made no matter what the circumstances are, no matter how bad things are," she said. "I don't know if it's being Jewish or [because] we just are all comedians... I really think that anything can be funny."

Izzy also confessed that Brennan's role in the movie was initially bigger than in the final result; some of it was cut to make room for childcare for their newborn daughter, while other pieces were axed to respect their mutual boundaries.

Brennan and Izzy are no strangers to working on creative projects together (just take one look at their improv special on Dropout), but their years of "careful communication," as Izzy puts it, have made collaborating on these projects possible.

Any Dropout subscriber will recognize a lot of Izzy's work from the streaming service, but she admitted that currently, the movie isn't planned to be added to Dropout's compendium of entertainment.

"That would be very cool, obviously," Izzy said of it potentially streaming on Dropout. "But we're going to do the pretty standard method of applying to a bajillion film festivals, and then maybe it'll get distribution that way."

Currently, the movie's release date is tied to the post-production timeline — which will be funded by the contributors to the Kickstarter campaign. Once the goal is met, Izzy said there will be a better frame of reference for its release and eventual distribution.

"Because we fronted so much of the money for actual production, we were like, 'OK, if people want to see it, they gotta pay directly, which I think is sort of the future of entertainment anyway," she said.

So those looking to see the dark comedy starring Izzy and her family should consider backing her Kickstarter. Some of the cast of D(e)AD will also be hosting an improv show on Aug. 17 to help fun the launch, featuring acts from Brennan, Vic, Rekha Shankar, Katie Marovitch, Angela Giarratana, Paraloubis, "and other surprise special guests."