Butler Street Productions

Everything Must Go is adapted from my short story of the same name, originally published in the literary journal Shift. Envisioned as a modern Yiddish fable, it blends humor, melancholy, and a touch of the extraordinary. Funding is largely in place, and the project is moving into pre-production.

Logline: As the neighborhood gentrifies around him, an aging Jewish shopkeeper faces the end of his family business. While emptying the shop, he uncovers an object from his youth that rekindles a private fascination he had set aside long ago.

The film explores the pull between obligation and personal fulfillment, the passing of a way of life, and the quiet longings that can endure for decades.

About Butler Street Productions

Butler Street Productions is the Brooklyn, NY-based creative partnership of husband-and-wife Nick Friedman and Caroline Ryburn, formed specifically to develop and produce Everything Must Go.

Screenwriter

Nick Friedman has more than three decades of experience as a writer and editor in magazine publishing, as well as writing and directing narrative-driven video projects. With family roots in New York’s Lower East Side and a background in theater, he brings a personal connection to the film and story.

Producer

Caroline Ryburn is an actor, performing arts educator, and producer whose work spans stage and screen. She is the head of Worldletter Productions, and is currently developing the mockumentary web series Irrelevant, which explores ageism in the entertainment industry.

Attached: Director/co-writer/producer

Yuval Shapira is a Brooklyn-based filmmaker and trained visual anthropologist whose work explores parenthood, personal agency, and the fragility of memory. His short films, including Gila Who Walks Alone and The Speed of the Distance Between Us, have screened at numerous Oscar-qualifying festivals and together reached over one million streams. His audio documentary Trickster was acquired by Amazon Studios for adaptation.