Director: Tracey Hecht
Principal Cast: Patrick Wilson, Lynn Collins, Amy Smart, Fred Weller, Zak Orth
Screenwriter: Tracey Hecht
Executive Producers: David Smilow, Tracey Hecht
Producers: Galt Niederhoffer, Celine Rattray, Daniela Taplin Lundberg, Pamela Hirsch
Director of Photography: Harlan Bosmajian
Editor: Craig McKay
Production Designer: John Nyomarkay
Composer: Anton Sanko

This thoughtful drama from first-time writer-director Tracey Hecht stars Patrick Wilson as a successful New York architect who seems to have the perfect life with his beautiful wife Catherine (Amy Smart) and an adorable, seven-year-old son. They are an attractive, well-to-do couple with a comfortable brownstone, but their relationship can be tense and distant, though not entirely loveless. Just as Will's business is about to enter the next phase, he meets Kate (Lynn Collins), a quirky retail designer, at a dinner party. Although they exchange nothing more than innocent conversation and mild flirtation, it is obvious the two have an immediate connection. Shortly after their meeting, Will helps Kate land a design job for a new Brooklyn waterfront development he is working on. As their professional relationship develops into a friendship, the cracks in Will's seemingly perfect family life become more apparent. The steadfast Catherine pushes for a merger between Will's small company and a major architecture firm, but Will is beginning to have doubts about the deal-lamenting that they are already so busy that they rarely see their son or each other. Meanwhile, after learning that Will is married, Kate considers uprooting herself and taking a plum job offer in Los Angeles. Both Will and Kate must confront their fears and ultimately decide between continuing on with their lives as they are and being brave enough to pursue the lives that they want. More than a simple morality tale, Life in Flight is a contemplative film that confronts issues we all face-whether to do what is expected, listening to what you really want in life, and learning to speak up about it.

--Genna Terranova

Tracey Hecht is a writer, director, and founder of several small businesses. She has been creating stories and beautiful images for the past 12 years through all of these pursuits. Life in Flight is one of the many stories she has composed. It marks her directorial debut.

Life in Flight is a story about fear. I wrote Life in Flight in response to the way I saw fear increasingly expressed as bravado, resolution, and velocity—in myself, my peer group, and the world around me. I was struck by the way some people turned toward fear, acknowledged they had apprehensions and uncertainties, while others seemed entirely resolute in their life choices and pursuits. What was even more compelling to me was the way I saw this struggle expressed not only on a personal and individual level, but just as frequently in institutions, businesses, religious groups and governments.

I wanted to explore these spectrums of comfort and discomfort, in acknowledging the complexity of life and at times the fear we have navigating our paths. What I loved most about creating the characters and narrative to this story was how quickly the characters emerged, each representing a different place on the spectrums of love, career, family, and personal honesty, though not necessarily knowing themselves where they landed. And in the end the way in which they were all capable of turning toward their fears and at other times shutting down and turning away from them.

I enjoy films that explore universal themes, and I think stories that do so in the context of the individual best evoke personal response. My hope in making Life in Flight was to create a film where you could watch characters in their lives but reflect on how you yourself acknowledge or deny the same inherently personal and shared struggle for honestly and self-fulfillment