Synopsis
In this deeply personal feature documentary, filmmaker Heather Greer turns the camera on herself in an attempt to heal from her mother’s decades-long depression and eventual suicide in the New York City subway on Mother’s Day in 2008.
Ever since learning at the age of 11 that the aunts she thought died from cancer had in fact died by suicide, Heather has been in search of answers.
Her initial inquiry was directed at her mother, who found herself giving Heather family photos and letters to try and help her understand the things she could not explain. Heather put the items in a box that she kept under her bed, spending hours by herself going through them in search of clues to her family’s hidden stories.
After her mother’s death, Heather started filling the box with her own artifacts until one day it became too much for her to bear alone and a desire to abandon her role as the keeper of the family’s pain emerged.
In the Box Under My Bed chronicles Heather’s journey from isolation to reconnection as she excavates the most potent artifacts and unearths the true cost of holding onto them.
The truth that emerges from this process, that Heather and her family can release the devastation of her mother’s death without betraying her memory, is a powerful revelation that transforms their lives in the most unexpected ways.
Key Personnel
Heather Greer: Director • Producer • Central Character
Heather Greer is an Emmy-winning producer, award-winning filmmaker, media artist, and educator. She is the founder of Black Tartan Studios, a production company and boutique creative agent that specializes in short-form, nonfiction content centered around powerful human-driven stories.
Heather’s films and video installations have screened and been exhibited nationally and internationally at leading festivals and arts venues including MoMA, Tribeca, BAFICI, the Female Eye Film Festival, the Calgary International Film Festival, and CineDoc.
She is currently co-directing and producing Hilda O. vs. The State of NY, a short documentary that follows 81-year-old Hilda Onley between deposition and court judgment as she seeks justice for the sexual abuse she endured while at the New York State Training School for Girls in 1958.
The Halfway Between All This, a short documentary that she co-directed and produced, was an official selection at the 2024 Calgary International Film Festival.
Neverland, Heather’s feature narrative screenplay, was a selected project for the 2024 Stowe Narrative Lab.
Heather holds a masters from the Interactive Telecommunications Program at NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts and a Bachelor of Arts from Georgetown University.
Konstantinos Kambouroglou: Producer • Editor
Konstantinos Kambouroglou is a New York-based filmmaker and media producer and the founder of Gouse Films, a digital storytelling company. He creates non-fiction that observes the heroism and tragedy of everyday lives.
In 2017, he produced, directed and edited the acclaimed feature documentary How to Steal a Chair, a meditation on design, passion, and lost dreams. The film was distributed theatrically in Europe, has screened internationally at film festivals (BAFICI, ADFF, Lemesos) and museums (MoMA), and is used as a teaching tool by universities (Gothenburg, Thessaloniki).
His short documentary, To Build Strong Children, about human trafficking and education, was an official selection at the Sacramento International Film Festival in 2014 and was repeatedly broadcast by PBS (WHUT) in the Washington, DC area.
Before Gouse Films, he served as resident filmmaker for the Wall Street law firm Cadwalader, Wickersham & Taft, where he was instrumental in the creation of VS Confronts, a video-centric knowledge base serving those who battle human trafficking in the United States.
Konstantinos holds a master’s from the Columbia Journalism School and a B.A. in Philosophy from Grinnell College.
Robert Gregson: Director of Photography • Colorist
Robert Gregson is an Emmy award-winning cinematographer based in New York. His work has screened theatrically and on broadcast for brands such as Google, Pfizer, United Nations Environment Programme, Palmers, Sesame Street, Hospital for Special Surgery, Snapchat, and Arm Technologies. He filmed five campaigns for the U.N. Environment Programme’s World Environment Day featuring Gisele Bündchen, Don Cheadle, Moby, Bill Nye, and Barbara Hershey, which were displayed on Times Square and Piccadilly Circus jumbotrons. When Stephen Colbert took over the late show, a documentary he lensed on the historic Ed Sullivan Theater renovation was shared virally. He recently filmed several short documentaries, including Hilda O. vs. The State of NY, The Halfway Between all This, and Color to Color, which are playing festivals. He is currently serving as cinematographer on several feature documentaries, including In the Box Under My Bed, To Be Free, and Come Dance With Me, a feature documentary about legendary dance artist Jacque D’amboise.
Woody Pak: Composer
Woody Pak creates music for film, commercials, Metaverse, XR, pop music, musical theater, and concert performances. He draws from an array of influences and tells musical stories while combining different genres from rock, hip-hop, jazz, classical and a multitude of other inspirations. Pak has received numerous accolades and awards that include the 2021 BMI Film Music Award, Waikiki; 2015 Korea Musical Awards Best Composer, The Devil (더 데빌); 2002 Brooklyn International Film Festival Best Composer, Black Picket Fence; 1998 Billboard no. 1 US Hot Dance Club Songs, “Found A Cure” by Ultra Naté; and 1997 UK Gold record sales for “Free,” also by Ultra Naté.
Pak received his B.S. from MIT and M.A. from the Juilliard School of Music. He was professor of applied music at the Seoul Institute of the Arts from 2014–2022. In the fall of 2022 joined the faculty of screen scoring at Berklee College of Music.
Kate Greer: Co-Producer • Project Participant
Kate Greer is an organizational transformation and leadership development consultant with over two decades of experience unlocking human potential in individuals and organizations. She held product leadership positions at numerous Silicon Valley startups including General Magic, AOL/WebCrawler, Excite@Home, Kodak/Ofoto, and SFGate.
She led the design and development of the WorkReimagined project at AARP to help experienced workers pivot in response to economic and workplace disruptions to find meaning, purpose, and renewed aliveness later in their careers. Her work is informed by a lifetime journey of curious exploration and personal transformation to find greater meaning and impact in life and at work.
Kate is a trained Co-Active Coach and facilitator and runs a retreat center called the Compound of Joy in Occidental, California. She develops and leads individual and group experiences to foster deeper, more authentic connection and heal diseases of disconnection in ourselves and in the world.
