Trek

Every summer, hundreds of Mormon teenagers and adults embark on Trek: a multi-day reenactment of the Mormon Pioneers’ journey on the Oregon Trail. Our film follows Mckaylee, a reserved sixteen year-old girl, as she sets out on her first Trek. Mckaylee quickly becomes captivated by Ayla, a free-spirited girl who resists the Trek’s demanding religious expectations. Through a series of charged moments, Mckaylee’s understanding of the world begins to shift, as she quietly begins to confront the carefully constructed presentation of what it means to be a good Mormon girl.

Trek examines the intersection of faith, identity, and female adolescence through a rarely depicted cultural tradition. Trek is a rite of passage for many Mormon teenagers, designed to strengthen their religious devotion through reenactment. While the tradition has become a defining experience for generations of young members of the Church, it has received very little nuanced representation on screen. At its core, this film is about the powerful, and oftentimes confusing intimacy between teenage girls and the ways young women learn to navigate desire, conformity, and self-discovery within systems that prescribe strict expectations for gender and sexuality. Rather than offering a critique of LDS religion itself, the film explores the universal longing to belong and the formative relationships that shape our identities.

This campaign will support the production needs of Trek as we prepare to begin filming early this fall.

Key Creative Team:

RACHEL BRUNNER (writer/director) is an LA-based actor and writer from Salt Lake City, Utah. She attended Emerson College in Boston, MA, where she earned her BFA in Theatre and was the recipient of the prestigious faculty award. Rachel co-directed, wrote, starred, and produced the short film Good Grief, which premiered in competition at the Oscar-qualifying Aspen Shortsfest and went on to play at Bentonville Film Festival and many others. Rachel produced the feature Danny Is My Boyfriend which premiered at Slamdance Film Festival and was the recipient of the Audience Award at Mammoth Lakes Film Festival. As a writer, Rachel’s scripts have been finalists for the Stowe Story Labs X Black List Fellowship, Tony Cox Award for screenwriting, and the Davey Foundation Production Grants.

ALLISON JOY GALE (producer) is a freelance film producer who has been obsessed with gentle, intimate storytelling since she was a little girl, reading Little Women on her family farm. After an extremely sheltered religious upbringing homeschooled through high school, she moved to Nashville TN. Allison spent 8 years producing music videos, but was inspired to dive into films after working on Kogonada’s beautiful debut feature, Columbus. Since moving to Los Angeles, she has co-produced the Grammy-nominated film June, about the life of June Carter Cash, and Stephen Curry: Underrated, a 2023 Sundance darling produced by Ryan Coogler. She most recently co-produced the 2024 SXSW selection from Duplass Brothers Productions, Magic Hour. This year will be announcing a yet-under-NDA lead producing role alongside Ryan Coogler’s production company Proximity, a film that has sent her around the globe to create.

RACHEL MOSS (consulting producer) is an Emmy-nominated producer, director, and writer, with work that spans across documentary and narrative. She has produced several documentaries that have premiered on HBO, Amazon, Apple, and at the Sundance Film Festival, including The Money Game, War Game, and Girls State. She got her start in late night and scripted comedies, cutting her teeth on TV shows such as Patriot Act with Hasan Minhaj (Netflix), Full Frontal with Samantha Bee (TBS), Broad City (Comedy Central), The Characters (Netflix), and Search Party (TBS).Rachel additionally independently produces film and live comedy. She’s a 2026 Film Independent Project Involve fellow, and produced Marissa Goldman’s narrative short, Max Distance, which world premiered at SXSW 2025.

GABRIELA ORTEGA (executive producer) Gabriela Ortega is an award-winning filmmaker and actress from the Dominican Republic and a two-time Sundance-selected director. She is a USC graduate, a Sundance Labs alum, and an Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences fellow. Her award-winning short film, Huella, was an official selection of the 2022 Sundance Film Festival and is being developed into a feature film after receiving support from the Sundance Labs and the Cine Qua Non residency. The short film is available to stream on Hulu and Rover. Gabriela was named one of Filmmaker Magazine’s 25 New Faces of Independent Film in 2022 and in 2023 as one of the winners of the annual Young Guns competition. In 2023, she was selected as a Sundance Latinx fellow, and in 2024, as an Adobe/Sundance fellow. She also received the 2025 Adrienne Shelly Foundation award for women filmmakers and was selected as a 2025 Cannes New Producer’s Room fellow at the Marche du Film.