James Bearhart ,Writer 

Sloan Grant(s) Received: 2024, SFFILM, Science in Cinema Development Award

Project Type: Feature 

Genre: Drama

Length: 80-90 minutes

Field of Science: Biology, Ecology, Medicine, Scientific research

Stage: Development 

Synopsis: 

We first meet MARIA VELDT, 9, exploring the San Diego butterfly aviary with her Panamanian mother, ALANA. Alana identifies plants and animals as they walk.

When Maria’s American father, OSCAR, joins them, Alana stiffens up. Maria is puzzled by her mother’s change in behavior.

Maria idolizes Oscar, which causes some resentment in Alana. That night, tucking Maria in, Alana points out a Baja frog outside Maria’s window. Maria wonders why she’s never seen one during the day. Alana explains, ‘Many animals turn invisible to survive.’

Presently, Maria is a PhD candidate at UCLA. An admin, PENNY, stops her on her first day at the lab, thinking she’s in the wrong place. GLENN, her advisor, intervenes. He informs her since she’s piggybacking a research trip for her thesis work, the team will be hard on her. Her thesis is on the impact of nocturnal animals on the biosphere, but Glenn would like her to refine it.

When she calls her parents, Oscar congratulates her, while Alana harasses her to marry. Oscar’s sister, SARA, interrupts the call.

Maria meets the team, DANIEL, JIM, TOM, and KEITH.

In the research field in Costa Rica, Maria dresses in drab clothes. Studying nocturnal animals means she must work at night AND help the men during the day.

Alana calls – Oscar is in hospital with a blood clot. He is fine and on medication. Alana guilts her to come home. Jim comforts her but then makes a move. She refuses.

She walks into the forest and prays for her father’s health. As she stares at a tree, she sees a frog on a leaf, COMPLETELY TRANSPARENT.

She pivots her research, developing a hypothesis that this discovery could change cardiovascular medicine. Glenn is not convinced and tells her to prove it.

Maria’s pivot disrupts the work with Daniel and his team. Jim spreads rumors about her relationship with Glenn. She tries to find the invisible frog at night but can’t.

When her father suddenly dies, Maria flies back to attend the funeral. Alana blames Maria for not being home and taking care of them.

Returning to the field, Maria starts cataloging the frogs. She realizes it’s not a new species. It’s the glass frog. What she actually has discovered is a behavior of theirs, which is to turn transparent when they sleep.

Glenn advises her to take videos of the transformation to prove to the grant board she should continue. After many failed attempts, she is informed her grant has been pulled.

Depressed, she returns home. Alana convinces her to move back in to save money.

Since an MRI would wake the frog up, Glenn encourages her to talk to FIONA, head of the film department. Since the equipment is expensive, Fiona tells her to bring a frog to the facility. There’s just a problem – Maria no longer has the money to go back and get one.

Sara tells Maria that Oscar forced Alana to give up her zoology degree and that he has belittled her. Maria’s studies are a painful reminder for Alana of what could have been.

Maria goes to the lab to clear out her desk. Penny enters and tells her that, as the first woman in that department, it is her responsibility to see her research through.

Maria buys a flight using her credit card and gets paperwork for the frog from Glenn. Alana fights with her when she hears that Maria is going into debt for this hypothesis.

Returning to Costa Rica, Maria gets a frog to bring back. Daniel is delighted she didn’t give up.

On the flight back, she remembers Alana telling her about the Baja frog. She realizes that Alana has to become invisible in order to survive her surroundings.

Fiona and Maria work together to video the frog, recreating sunrise to induce the behavior.

Fast forward a semester, and Maria presents her findings to the board. She shares how Alana diminished herself for the sake of Oscar’s ego and their marriage. Her mother gave up on her wonder of nature, like many people do, to ‘live.’

Unbeknownst to her, Alana has sat at the back of the auditorium, listening.

The committee congratulates her, and Maria becomes Dr. Maria Veldt. At a celebration party back at her childhood home, Alana tells her Maria has inspired her to go back and finish her degree.

Finally, mother and daughter, no longer invisible, truly see each other.