RACE END
Written & directed by Sasha Santiago

Race End

The battlefield is no longer a distant place. It is inside our minds.

An Oregon-made conspiracy thriller about Havana Syndrome, artificial intelligence, surveillance, and the fight to preserve personal agency.

Based on true stories of Havana Syndrome attacksPrincipal photography · Oregon
01 · The film

The question is not simply who wins the AI arms race, but what remains human when it ends.

Veteran journalist Shelly Shapiro investigates reports surrounding Havana Syndrome and discovers evidence pointing toward a covert weapons program.

The trail moves through directed-energy technology, surveillance, artificial intelligence, and the weaponization of the human mind. What begins as an investigation into a hidden weapon becomes a fight over perception, behavior, and reality itself.

The film asks a simple question: what happens when the technology we create to control the world begins to control us?

The fight is to preserve the ability to think freely, choose for ourselves, and act with genuine agency.
GenreConspiracy thriller · psychological science fiction
SettingPortland and rural Oregon
MethodA lean independent production built scene by scene
02 · Story engine

Four forces collide.

01

Havana Syndrome

Unexplained attacks become the first visible trace of a larger system.

02

Artificial Intelligence

A covert weapons program may no longer be operating under human control.

03

First Amendment

A free press becomes the last defense against a system built to control the truth.

04

Personal Agency

Freedom becomes the right to know which thoughts are still your own.

03 · The storyworld

Three standalone films. One widening reality.

Race EndPart 12027
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04 · The Roadmap

A microbudget film is built in stages.

You shoot with the resources you have, get scenes in the can, build trust with the cast, and turn that progress into momentum. Initial financial support helped kickstart the project. Now we’re raising the next stage of funding to get the film shot, assembled, and ready for a direct distribution strategy.

Now

Production

Complete principal photography by March 2027.

Next

Post + Legal

Edit, sound, score, color, VFX, clearances, and formal structure.

Then

Delivery

Captions, masters, Bitmax delivery, marketing, and platform submissions.

Spring–Summer 2027

Roadshow

A five-city event strategy built around virtual and four-wall exhibition.

30%
Feature photographedPart 1 · 2027
05 · Field files

The fiction begins at the edge of the documented world.

Classified // Story research

Follow the reporting, testimony, and scientific debate that form the real-world perimeter of RACE END.

06 · Director’s Statement

Director’s Statement

Director Sasha Santiago in Portland, Oregon
Director Sasha Santiago · Portland, Oregon · Fall 2026

I’ve spent more than twenty years making films with small crews, thin resources, and people willing to take a chance together. I write for the actors in front of me, work in real places, and shoot with the edit in mind. That way of filmmaking has taught me to trust what we can find in the field: a performance, a street corner, a moment none of us could have planned. RACE END is my chance to build a feature and open up a story world at the speed we actually work. I want the film to feel discovered as it unfolds.

The story begins with a journalist who has spent decades investigating Havana Syndrome and finds himself confronting questions much bigger than the one he started with. How do we establish the truth when images, voices, and evidence can be manipulated? Who gets to shape what a community believes? Those questions reach into our work, our relationships, and our sense of agency. I don’t have neat answers, and I’m not making a film that pretends to. I’m a dramatist. I want to put people under pressure, follow the choices they make, and see what the story reveals. I hope you’ll come along for that exploration.

07 · Casting

Casting Call Through Fall of 2026

RACE END is a microbudget feature filming in Portland and across the surrounding Northwest. We’re seeking nonunion actors for day-player and supporting roles, with an estimated 100 speaking parts. Characters are written with the actors we cast in mind. To express interest, email Sasha Santiago at SuperDreamIndie@gmail.com with a headshot, a short paragraph about yourself as an actor, and links to previous work if available.

RACE END is already being made.

The larger opportunity is not simply one movie. It is a repeatable independent production system built around a connected body of work.