The Mural Film
Shooting September 2025.
The Mural is inspired by true events.
Running a small business is hard. This is the story of a meek, struggling soup-cafe owner who finally sees some success after painting a mural on the side of the building. When the mural is defaced, she publicly threatens the vandal to face her, and to face consequences.
Community by her side, she finds fierceness in herself she never knew she had.
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As a small business owner herself, and wife of a restaurateur, this story comes from Alison Wesley’s first-handed experience of the ups and down of business, the strong and hopeful community in Portland and the very real need to stop apologizing as a woman in today’s society.
In our community, just like in a great soup, EVERY INGREDIENT MATTERS.
Our intention is to bring flavor, hope and diverse representation in this project from start to finish.
Currently, we’re looking for other portland small businesses to be featured in our film.
Let’s bring hope back to our city!
We need community.
We need YOU! As we continue to shape this project, we’ll be posting about crowdfunding opportunities, casting calls and location/prop needs. This story is all about community and behind the scenes will be, too.
Behind the scenes, we have:
Julie Nhem, Director of Photography
Myhraliza Aala, Assistant Director
Alison Wesley, Writer/Producer
Reba Sparrow, Producer, Second Assistant Director and Intimacy Coordinator
Emily Roskam, Artwork (co-owner of Cubo de Cuba in Portland where her mural art is on display)
