When screenwriter Dana White was crafting her most recent film, she looked a bit beyond her home of Willoughby Hills and workplace at Kent State University to cast the lead: Barkhad Abdi. How did the Oscar-nominated co-star of “Captain Phillips” land in Northeast Ohio? As is often the case in showbiz, a casting director was friends with an agent.
“His agent told him, ‘They wrote it for you,’” White said. “I like to think that he felt himself in the character. There's no way to describe how good he is in this movie. Working with him is the most incredible, crazy, wonderful, intimidating, scary experience ever, because he's so talented. And you just kind of want to get out of his way and let him do his thing.”
Abdi plays a rideshare driver in the short film, “Magan’s Fare.” It’s the story of an elderly woman who can’t find a home.
“With regards to elder abuse, it's something that's always been dear to our heart,” said White’s husband and co-director, Chris Knoblock. “From a very early age, I've never understood why I have such an affinity towards older people.”
The couple met in New York as struggling actors, then moved to Hollywood, where they had long careers working on projects such as “The Amazing Race.” After White pursued her graduate degree in writing, she stayed in academia and joined Kent State University’s media program as an instructor. Her husband signed on as a professor too. They’ve made two previous shorts in Northeast Ohio: 2020’s “Turning Blue” and 2023’s “Involuntary.” The latter also touches on elder abuse.
In “Magan’s Fare,” an older woman loses her place at a nursing home.
“As filmmakers, we felt that it was really important that we presented a really complex situation. It's not cut and dry,” White said.
“There are people doing their jobs, doing the best that they can in really difficult circumstances. And everybody is … in this system that is really not always doing the best thing that it can be doing, right?”
The couple uses what they call their “Cleveland crew” for each production, shot around Northeast Ohio.
The results have resonated with audiences, most recently with the top prize at the Oscar-qualifying St. Louis International Film Festival. The couple has also submitted the short to the 50th Cleveland International Film Festival, which opens in April. Currently, they’re working on a campaign for the 2027 Academy Awards, plus prepping ideas for a third film in their elder care series. And although nothing is definite yet, they hope that both Abdi and his co-star, Alexis Rhee, return as they work to expand “Magan’s Fare” into a feature film.
