i'm not crazy
i'm not crazy
what is alethea & i’m not crazy ?
Alethea is a fictional wellness brand created by Darsh Panchal as a stealth marketing campaign for the short film i'm not crazy. Positioned as a radical transparency practice, the brand released a series of audio recordings between Rita, the film's protagonist, and her practitioner as a prequel to the events of the film.
winter 2025
My sister wanted a short film she could star in. I wanted to write & direct something worth watching. After multiple revisions, we had a script.
feb 2026
Editing, color grading, sound mixing. The quiet work that determines whether everything that came before it was worth it. Somewhere in the middle of all of that, Alethea was born.
march 2026
We shot the film over two days in Evans City and Butler, PA. A crew of twelve, a cemetery, a house, and a vision. The shoot was grueling and honest in the way that first productions tend to be.
april 2026
The film is out now. This website is an illusion. Practitioner Laing sent her off to start spiritual observation. Rita escaped the transport vehicle because she had somewhere else to be.
now
Alethea. A fictional wellness brand. A series of audio recordings. Our protagonist, Rita, whose grip on reality was already slipping before the film even begins. The campaign was an experiment in building an audience before revealing what they were actually watching. It worked in some ways. Not in others. Either way, it was worth trying.
darsh’s socials
Cast
Niyati Panchal
as Rita
Samuel Thinnes
as The Man
Lauren Stackhouse
as J.O.
Ryan Beatrice
as The Cop
Crew
Darsh Panchal
Writer, Director, & Editor
Philip Stewart
DOP
Brandon Bean
1st AC
Adam Meyers
Sound
Joshua McCool
Grips/Gaff
Carl Benner
Camera Op.
Vivian Scott
2nd AC
Adam Chase
1st AD
John Walters
PA
Elisabeth Stagge
Music
Gerianne Hannibal
Marketing V.O.