The Mission Continues, Everytown for Gun Safety Support Fund, and The Bob Woodruff Foundation Celebrate Partnership at the SXSW World Premiere of “MY DEAD FRIEND ZOE”

Film Was Produced By Legion M and Radiant Media Studios, Executive Producers Include Recent Super Bowl LVIII Champion Travis Kelce

Feature-Length Dark Comedy Drama Boasts An A-List Cast: Sonequa Martin-Green, Natalie Morales, Ed Harris, Morgan Freeman, Utkarsh Ambudkar and Gloria Reuben

AUSTIN, Texas – Today, Everytown for Gun Safety Support Fund (“The Everytown Support Fund”), The Bob Woodruff Foundation, and The Mission Continues released the following statements ahead of tomorrow’s world premiere of the feature film “MY DEAD FRIEND ZOE” at the Paramount Theater for South by Southwest Film Festival. The coalition of groups partnered with the writer and director of “MY DEAD FRIEND ZOE,” Kyle Hausmann-Stokes, as part of a campaign created by Hausmann-Stokes and Impact Producer Chris Marvin to connect audiences to social impact opportunities relating to themes shown in the film and to Hausmann-Stokes’ own time in the Army. Hausmann-Stokes is a founding member of the Everytown Veterans Advisory Council.

The film was produced by Legion M and Radiant Media Studios, and includes in its ranks of Executive Producers recent Super Bowl LVIII champion Travis Kelce.

“My goal with the film has always been selfish. To help my fellow veterans, really anyone who has endured a trauma or loss like I have, who might be drawn to seeing the film for one reason—it’s a proper Hollywood film, an A-list cast, levity and gravity—but come away with a deeper message. That help is out there; to heal is to talk about it, to live your best life is to honor those we’ve lost,” said Kyle Hausmann-Stokes, writer and director of “MY DEAD FRIEND ZOE” and founding member of the Everytown Veterans Advisory Council. “Every American knows a veteran, but not everyone gets to delve into their lives and experiences to understand who veterans really are.”

“When veterans talk about guns and gun safety, the American people need to listen,” said John Feinblatt, president of Everytown for Gun Safety. “Everytown was honored to be an impact partner on ‘MY DEAD FRIEND ZOE,’ which highlights why any conversation about supporting veterans needs to include gun safety.”

“The Bob Woodruff Foundation is thrilled to be an impact partner on this groundbreaking film ‘MY DEAD FRIEND ZOE’,” said Anne Marie Dougherty, CEO of the Bob Woodruff Foundation. “This film is pivotal in highlighting the urgent mental health needs of our nation’s veterans and their loved ones.”

“At The Mission Continues, our veteran-led service projects are restoring the sense of purpose and connectedness that is so critical to veterans when they leave the military,” said Marine Corps veteran Mary Beth Bruggeman, CEO of The Mission Continues. “‘MY DEAD FRIEND ZOE’ is a cautionary tale, and one that inspires us to reach more veterans and ensure they can continue their mission of service here at home.”

“MY DEAD FRIEND ZOE” is a dark comedy drama that follows the journey of Merit (Sonequa Martin-Green), a U.S. Army Afghanistan veteran who is at odds with her estranged grandfather (Ed Harris) thanks to the presence of Zoe (Natalie Morales), her dead best friend from the Army. “MY DEAD FRIEND ZOE” is a continuation of “MERITxZOE,” a 2022 short film that is semi-autobiographical for Hausmann-Stokes. The Everytown Support Fund, The Bob Woodruff Foundation, and The Mission Continues were organizational impact partners on “MERITxZOE” as well.

About Everytown for Gun Safety Support Fund

Everytown for Gun Safety Support Fund (the “Everytown Support Fund”) is the education, research and litigation arm of Everytown for Gun Safety, the largest gun violence prevention organization in the country with more than 10 million supporters and more than 700,000 donors. The Everytown Support Fund seeks to improve our understanding of the causes of gun violence and help to reduce it by conducting groundbreaking original research, developing evidence-based policies, communicating this knowledge to the American public, and advancing gun safety and gun violence prevention in communities and the courts. Learn more at www.everytownsupportfund.org.

About the Bob Woodruff Foundation

The Bob Woodruff Foundation was founded in 2006 after reporter Bob Woodruff was wounded by a roadside bomb while covering the war in Iraq. Since then, the Bob Woodruff Foundation has raised awareness about the tough challenges veterans and military families are facing, and invested in solutions to help support them in the next chapter of their lives. To date, the Bob Woodruff Foundation has invested over $159 million to ensure that our nation’s veterans, service members and their families — those who stood for us — have stable and successful futures. Visit www.BobWoodruffFoundation.org for more information.

About Kyle Hausmann-Stokes

Kyle Hausmann-Stokes is an award-winning director based in Los Angeles. His passion as filmmaker is informed by the five years he served in the US Army as an Airborne Infantryman and convoy commander in Iraq (Bronze Star recipient). After using the GI Bill to graduate from the USC School of Cinematic Arts, Kyle founded a veteran-focused production company and wrote/directed dozens of PSAs and cause-focused campaigns for the US Dept of Veterans Affairs. In 2012, Kyle co-founded Veterans in Media & Entertainment, an organization that offers training, job placement and community to its five thousand members across the country, as well as the foremost connector between Hollywood studios and the military/veteran community. In addition to directing advertising campaigns for various national brands (IBM, UPS, REI, U.S. Air Force), Kyle’s most impactful work to date was the “Veterans For Gun Reform” PSA for #MarchForOurLives that accrued over 40 million views in four days.

About “MY DEAD FRIEND ZOE”

“MY DEAD FRIEND ZOE” is a dark comedy drama that follows the journey of Merit, a U.S. Army Afghanistan veteran who is at odds with her family thanks to the presence of Zoe, her dead best friend from the Army. Despite the persistence of her VA group counselor, the tough love of her mother and the levity of an unexpected love interest, Merit’s cozy-dysfunctional friendship with Zoe keeps the duo insulated from the world. That is until Merit’s estranged grandfather—holed up at the family’s ancestral lake house—begins to lose his way and is in need of the one thing he refuses… help. At its core, this is about a complicated friendship, a divided family and the complex ways in which we process grief.