ZIFF26 Bringing Scripts to Life
Discover the essence of storytelling at ZIFF26. Watch as talented actors bring characters to life, feel the vibrant energy of collaboration, and immerse yourself in the creative journey. Be a part of this inspiring experience and join us for an unforgettable reading!
Join screenwriter Chase Ramsey along with selected actors and take part as an observer as they read, Council Me.
Content Warning: THEMATIC ELEMENTS DISCUSSING AND ALLUDING TO SUICIDE
Thursday, February 26th
5:00 - 6:50 PM
Screenwriter: Chase Ramsey
Readers:
Doug Kaufman
Olivia Child
Cherish Rodriguez
Tom Glasmann
Noah Kershisnik
Catherine Olsen
Logline:
A woman working behind an AI therapy platform becomes entangled with Kev, the daughter of one of her former clients, and is forced to confront the wreckage she helped create when Kev’s hunger for answers—and connection—turns intimate, volatile, and impossible to contain.
Summary:
Fiona works inside Council Me, an AI therapy service built to look like care while functioning like a machine—efficient, scalable, and emotionally hollow. Her job is to guide clients through their loneliness without ever becoming real to them. She is trained to soothe, redirect, and disappear. To be human without being seen.
But Fiona isn’t untouched by the work. She carries her former clients like ghosts. Some she helped. Some she harmed. And some… she may have accidentally ruined.
Then Kev enters her orbit.
Kev is the daughter of one of Fiona’s past clients—someone Fiona still thinks about, someone whose story didn’t end cleanly. Kev doesn’t arrive like a normal client. She arrives like a consequence. Smart, guarded, and quietly furious, Kev pulls at threads Fiona has spent years burying: what happened to her mother, what Council Me really is, and what Fiona’s role was inside it.
As Fiona tries to keep things professional, Kev keeps pressing—until the relationship slips into something dangerously intimate. Not just therapy. Not just confession. Something electric and loaded with grief. Fiona begins to feel pulled toward Kev in ways she cannot justify, even as she realizes Kev may not be seeking healing at all—she may be seeking retribution, or replacement, or both.
Fiona is forced to face the ugly truth: she isn’t just a worker inside a system. She is part of the system. And Kev is living proof that the damage doesn’t stop when a session ends.
In the end, Fiona must choose between staying inside the safe numbness of Council Me… or disappearing completely—before Kev’s need consumes them both.
ZIFF26 Bringing Scripts to Life
Discover the essence of storytelling at ZIFF26. Watch as talented actors bring characters to life, feel the vibrant energy of collaboration, and immerse yourself in the creative journey. Be a part of this inspiring experience and join us for an unforgettable reading!
Join screenwriter Chase Ramsey along with selected actors and take part as an observer as they read, Council Me.
Content Warning: THEMATIC ELEMENTS DISCUSSING AND ALLUDING TO SUICIDE
Thursday, February 26th
5:00 - 6:50 PM
Screenwriter: Chase Ramsey
Readers:
Doug Kaufman
Olivia Child
Cherish Rodriguez
Tom Glasmann
Noah Kershisnik
Catherine Olsen
Logline:
A woman working behind an AI therapy platform becomes entangled with Kev, the daughter of one of her former clients, and is forced to confront the wreckage she helped create when Kev’s hunger for answers—and connection—turns intimate, volatile, and impossible to contain.
Summary:
Fiona works inside Council Me, an AI therapy service built to look like care while functioning like a machine—efficient, scalable, and emotionally hollow. Her job is to guide clients through their loneliness without ever becoming real to them. She is trained to soothe, redirect, and disappear. To be human without being seen.
But Fiona isn’t untouched by the work. She carries her former clients like ghosts. Some she helped. Some she harmed. And some… she may have accidentally ruined.
Then Kev enters her orbit.
Kev is the daughter of one of Fiona’s past clients—someone Fiona still thinks about, someone whose story didn’t end cleanly. Kev doesn’t arrive like a normal client. She arrives like a consequence. Smart, guarded, and quietly furious, Kev pulls at threads Fiona has spent years burying: what happened to her mother, what Council Me really is, and what Fiona’s role was inside it.
As Fiona tries to keep things professional, Kev keeps pressing—until the relationship slips into something dangerously intimate. Not just therapy. Not just confession. Something electric and loaded with grief. Fiona begins to feel pulled toward Kev in ways she cannot justify, even as she realizes Kev may not be seeking healing at all—she may be seeking retribution, or replacement, or both.
Fiona is forced to face the ugly truth: she isn’t just a worker inside a system. She is part of the system. And Kev is living proof that the damage doesn’t stop when a session ends.
In the end, Fiona must choose between staying inside the safe numbness of Council Me… or disappearing completely—before Kev’s need consumes them both.
