THE SUGAR BEACH TRILOGY
Three films. One unforgettable journey through love, loss, and self-discovery. A raw, intimate coming-of-age story that speaks to a generation seeking authenticity in a fractured world.
Watch The Teaser
A Queer Coming-of-Age Story in Three Movements
Follow soccer star Rosalyn through three pivotal chapters as she navigates the complex terrain of identity, sexuality, and healing. This isn't sanitized YA—it's raw, honest cinema that grows into a phenomenon, capturing the messy reality of becoming yourself in a world that demands conformity.
Each film stands as its own artistic statement while building a narrative arc that resonates deeply with audiences hungry for stories that reflect their lived experiences—especially Gen Z viewers navigating similar waters of complex identity and emotional resilience.
"Euphoria meets Moonlight with the emotional intelligence of Never Rarely Sometimes Always"
The Films:
  • Sugar Beach (2025) - Their Only Escape Is Each Other
  • Blue Underwater World - In the aftermath of passion, between two worlds
  • Mudslides - Love yourself, then love again
Cultural Moment
Identity Without Compromise
Gen Z demands narratives that honor the complexity of sexuality and gender without the traditional constraints of binary thinking. The Sugar Beach Trilogy creates space for characters to exist in their fullness—messy, contradictory, and beautifully human.
Mental Health & Climate Anxiety
Against the backdrop of environmental precarity, Rosalyn's journey speaks to a generation grappling with inherited crises while navigating their own internal landscapes. The trilogy doesn't shy away from the psychological toll of coming of age in uncertain times.
Polyamory & Complex Love
Moving beyond tired cinematic tropes of jealousy and possessiveness, these films explore the freedom of queerness, chosen family, and the radical possibilities of love that exists outside conventional structures.
Women Rewriting Narratives
The trilogy centers female characters who reclaim their stories, their bodies, and their futures—not as objects of the male gaze but as architects of their own complex identities and desires.
The Films
1
Sugar Beach (2025)
Logline: A brilliant yet haunted valedictorian seeks refuge in a passionate throuple but must confront her past when their intoxicating world unravels.
Key Plot Beats:
  • Rosalyn escapes into a throuple with Isaac & Emma
  • Leaked intimacy video triggers isolation & descent
  • A near‑fatal miscarriage forces her to reclaim her identity
2
Blue Underwater World
Logline: College soccer star Rosalyn struggles to maintain sobriety across two worlds — one real and one imagined.
Key Plot Beats:
  • Long‑distance strains relationships with Emma & Kiara
  • Injury leads to pill use & Kiara's intervention
  • A surreal underwater realm forces a choice: return or stay
3
Mudslides
Logline: After a near‑death experience, Rosalyn returns to rebuild her life and learn to love again.
Key Plot Beats:
  • Stirring from the depths of her ordeal, she confronts a world reshaped by loss
  • Transfers to Portland, reconnects with Kiara & Emma
  • Deepening love leads to a proposal at Sugar Beach
  • Ends with a championship and reconciliation
The trilogy creates a complete emotional journey—from explosive passion to spiritual crisis to hard-won redemption—while maintaining visual and thematic coherence that rewards audience investment across all three films.
Visual World
Three Worlds, One Emotional Journey
Each film in the trilogy employs a distinct visual language that mirrors Rosalyn's emotional state and creates an immersive sensory experience for viewers. Rather than relying on exposition, these shifts in aesthetic communicate psychological states that words cannot capture.
The progression from sun-drenched intimacy to fractured surrealism to muted realism with emergent color creates a visual arc that carries audiences through Rosalyn's transformation—making her journey felt rather than merely observed.
"We're creating not just a story but a sensory memory—the feel of sand between fingers, the disorientation of being underwater, the grounding sensation of mud. These tactile experiences become part of the emotional landscape."
— Noely Mendoza, Director
Sugar Beach
Warm, sun-soaked intimacy. Golden hour cinematography. Handheld, documentary-like approach with grain texture. Polaroid inserts. Sensuous close-ups that border on the tactile.
Blue Underwater World
Fractured blues and greens. Dreamlike surrealism with floating camera movements. Underwater sequences with distorted sound design. Split-screen techniques representing fragmented consciousness.
Mudslides
Muted palette with grey dominance. Steadier, more composed framing. Gradual introduction of warmth and color as healing progresses. Rain and earth elements as metaphors for renewal.
Thematic Resonance
Grief as Embodied Memory
The trilogy explores how trauma and loss live in the body—through Rosalyn's athletic identity, her sexuality, and her physical relationship to the world. Rather than intellectualizing grief, these films show how it reshapes our physical reality and how healing requires reconnection with the body.
Polyamory as Radical Love
Moving beyond tired narratives of jealousy and possession, the trilogy presents ethical non-monogamy as a legitimate framework for connection. The throuple dynamics raise questions about commitment, communication, and the possibility of loving differently in a world built for couples.
Women in Control of Their Sexuality
Rosalyn, Emma, and Kiara each embody different relationships to desire, pleasure, and bodily autonomy. Their stories unfold not for the male gaze but as authentic explorations of female sexuality in all its complexity, including the political dimensions of women claiming their own bodies.
Recovery as Non-Linear
The trilogy rejects simplistic narratives of "getting better" in favor of a more honest portrayal of healing as cyclical, messy, and ongoing. Rosalyn's journey includes relapses, new wounds, and the recognition that some scars never fully fade but become integrated into who we are.
Character Evolution
Rosalyn at 18
Valedictorian. Soccer prodigy. Restrained perfectionist hiding childhood trauma. Wears her athlete identity like armor. Simultaneously mature and naive. Hungry for experience but terrified of vulnerability.
Rosalyn at 19-21
College athlete battling injury and addiction. Caught between real-world pressures and a blue underwater dreamscape. More bohemian in appearance. Experimental, self-destructive, yet searching for authentic connection amid dissociation.
Rosalyn at 22-25
Emerging leader. Scarred but integrated. More comfortable in her queerness. Has learned to hold grief alongside joy. Style reflects both her athletic roots and newfound expressive freedom. Ready to love again with hard-won wisdom.
Four Hearts, One Story
  • Rosalyn: Brilliant, broken, resilient. Our protagonist whose journey from trauma to integration forms the backbone of the trilogy.
  • Isaac: Addicted, magnetic, lost. The charismatic boy whose own demons ultimately consume him, leaving a void that reshapes Rosalyn's world.
  • Emma: Bold, fluid, aching. The artist whose passion ignites Rosalyn's self-discovery but whose own journey leads to different shores.
  • Kiara: Grounded, generous, true. The steady presence whose love offers Rosalyn a different kind of healing—one based on honesty rather than escape.
"What makes these characters compelling isn't just who they are, but how they change each other. Every relationship leaves its mark—sometimes a wound, sometimes a gift, often both."
— Zoe Manzotti, Writer
The character arcs extend beyond Rosalyn to create a tapestry of growth, regression, and transformation. By the trilogy's end, no one is who they were at the beginning—mirroring the audience's own journey through these formative years.
Noely Mendoza
Director
Noely Mendoza is a filmmaker from Santa Barbara, California, who brings together documentary authenticity and narrative storytelling in her work. After graduating with honors from Amherst College in Film & Media Studies and collaborating with Oscar-winning filmmakers, she made her feature debut with Sugar Beach, an award-winning independent coming-of-age romance.
Her films focus on intimate character moments set against bigger stories, creating work that feels both immediate and lasting. As a mother, Mendoza has found her perspective deepened, bringing new awareness about time, legacy, and the stories that matter most.
As co-founder of Flashbear Films, she's building a body of work that doesn't compromise on emotional truth. With The Sugar Beach Trilogy, she's creating films meant to connect with audiences and spark meaningful conversations.
Her goal is straightforward: make films that stick with people long after the credits roll.
Zoe Manzotti
Writer / Lead
Zoe Manzotti is a magnetic actor, writer, and classically trained pianist who studied acting and filmmaking at the Lee Strasberg Theatre and Film Institute, Amherst College, and Hampshire College. Raised in L.A.’s South Bay, she began writing screenplays and composing music early, drawn to the emotional and cultural contradictions of the place she called home. Sugar Beach, her debut feature, channels those complexities—where surf culture is insular, racial tensions simmer beneath the surface, and fractured families live among beauty and chaos. With a background in literature and songwriting, Manzotti infuses the script with lyricism and rhythm, crafting dialogue that feels both lived-in and emotionally precise. Her lived experience within queer communities further inform the nuanced portrayal of relationships throughout the trilogy. Her commitment to emotional honestly prevents even the most difficult scenes from veering into exploitation.
Production Status & Strategy
1
Current Status
Sugar Beach (2025): Completed. Independent production.
  • 🏆 Best LGBTQ Film — LA Film Awards
  • 🏆 Best Picture — CA Women's Film Festival
  • 🏆 Best Director — CA Women's Film Festival
  • 🏆 Best Narrative Film - New York Independent Women Festival
  • 🏆 Best of Fest - Queer Expression Film Festival
  • 🏆 Winner - UMCFF
  • 🎥 Official Selection: LA Independent, SF Queer Fest, Black August, Reel Out Charlotte, Fade Out
Blue Underwater + Mudslides: Treatments completed, scripts in development with strong story architecture in place.
2
Seeking
  • Strategic finishing funds to complete the trilogy at scale
  • Creative partnership with a platform that understands the vision
  • Distribution model that maximizes audience connection
  • Collaborative approach to expanded universe development
Our ideal partner brings resources without compromising the trilogy's emotional and artistic integrity, recognizing the balance between commercial viability and creative vision.
3
Timeline
Shoot Trilogy back to back. 6-18 month production rollout planned, with development of supplementary content (novels, digital experiences) running parallel to film production.
This approach creates multiple touchpoints for audience engagement while maintaining the films as the core of the universe.
Strategic release schedule designed to build momentum through word-of-mouth and critical recognition while allowing for organic audience growth.
Streaming Benefits
The Sugar Beach Trilogy offers a compelling proposition for streamers seeking both audience growth and retention. It's designed to deliver exactly what audiences crave and platforms need.
Original & Fresh
Break through the noise with entirely new stories and characters. This trilogy offers a refreshing alternative to recycled IP, appealing to audiences craving unique and authentic narratives.
Engagement & Retention
Structured as a three-part release, similar to successful series like 'Fear Street', it's designed to drive sustained engagement, extend watch time, and build momentum across multiple drops.
Cinematic Experience
This isn't just a movie; it's an immersive cinematic experience built to hook viewers and keep them coming back for more. It's a journey they'll want to complete.
Expanded Universe
Beyond the Screen
The Sugar Beach Trilogy transcends the screen, crafting a deeply textured world that expands across diverse media. This immersive journey fosters a profound emotional connection with its core narrative, irresistibly drawing in new audiences.
Companion Novels
Three novels written from Rosalyn's perspective, offering deeper insight into her interior life. These books create entry points for literary audiences while enriching the experience for viewers who want to dive deeper into her psychology.
BTS Photography Book
A high-end photography book capturing the visual relationships between the characters. Perfect for cinephiles and photography enthusiasts, this coffee table book extends the trilogy's artistic footprint beyond the screen.
Curated Merchandise
Thoughtfully designed items that serve as tactile connections to the films: character rings, mixtapes, handwritten letters, journals. These aren't mere promotional items but artifacts that extend the emotional experience of the trilogy.
Digital Experience
Interactive content that allows audiences to explore the blue underwater world, read Rosalyn's journals, or follow the characters' social media. Creating immersive touchpoints that bridge the gap between films.
"Love is messy. Grief is real. We're allowed to feel it all."
Cultural Impact
Only one YA trilogy is in the Criterion Collection. Sugar Beach aims to join that rarefied air—not as a commercial play but as a cultural touchstone that captures a generation's experience of love, loss, and becoming.
This trilogy isn't just entertainment—it's cultural memory for a generation navigating unprecedented challenges to identity formation, relationship-building, and emotional resilience.
For partners and investors, the opportunity extends beyond ROI to becoming part of a cultural conversation that will continue long after the final credits roll.
Cinematic Stills from Sugar Beach
Experience the visual heart of Sugar Beach through these actual stills, captured directly from the completed film. Each frame meticulously showcases the distinct cinematic language, cinematography, color grading, set design, and costuming, crafted to evoke specific feelings by blending natural beauty with raw human emotion.
This collection embodies the trilogy's core themes—love, loss, and self-discovery—through a palette of vibrant yet nuanced colors, intimate compositions, and a seamless blend of realism and dreamlike sequences. These visuals are more than concepts; they are the essence of the film's storytelling, designed to immerse viewers in the warmth of the sun, the coolness of the water, and the raw emotion of youth.
The Art of Filmmaking: Behind the Scenes
Step onto the set and witness the dedication, passion, and collaborative spirit that brings cinematic visions to life. These intimate moments capture our cast and crew at work, transforming ideas into unforgettable stories.
"Filmmaking is a tapestry woven by countless hands, each thread essential to the final masterpiece. It's in these collaborative moments that magic truly happens."
The Journey Continues
The Sugar Beach Trilogy is more than just a series of films; it's a profound exploration of human emotion, a cultural touchstone for a generation, and an unparalleled investment in the future of storytelling. Join us in bringing this impactful narrative to even wider audiences, nurturing its legacy, and building a truly immersive universe.
Unlock the Next Chapter
We invite visionary partners and investors to become a part of the Sugar Beach phenomenon. Let's discuss how your involvement can shape the cultural landscape and generate significant impact.
Connect With Us

Email: hello@sugarbeachmovie.com