INSTANT LIFE

(a forthcoming three-part documentary series) 

Directed & Produced by Aaron Schock & Mark Becker

An A24, IAC Films and Fortune Favors Films Production     

Before she met Harold von Braunhut, Yolanda Signorelli was a young bohemian actress floating through the exploitation film world of the ’60s.  A mad scientist with a tenacious entrepreneurial spirit, Harold ruled the back pages of comic books by selling novelty mail order toys like X-Ray Specs, Invisible Goldfish, and his most successful product, Amazing Live Sea-Monkeys. Combining practical chemistry with a magician’s sleight-of-hand, Harold perfected the formula for bringing these miniature sea creatures to life. When this unlikely duo fell in love, they oversaw together the rise of a pop-culture phenomenon that still endures.

After Harold’s passing, Yolanda became the only person in the world who knew the top-secret formula, but a corporate battle left her without control of the iconic property. Dispossessed of her livelihood and living without electricity or running water, she is forced to wage a legal and existential battle to take back what is rightfully hers. First, she must confront the ghost of Harold, whose shadow casts a darkness over Yolanda’s beloved Sea Monkeys.