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Just Say Goodbye is a 2017 American drama film directed by Matt Walting and written by Layla O'Shea. It stars Max MacKenzie, Katerina Eichenberger, and William Galatis. The film focuses on Jesse Peterson, a troubled teenager struggling to manage abuse from his alcoholic father and school bully, after he tells his best friend, Sarah, he plans on committing suicide. The film follows Sarah's attempts at preventing Jesse from taking his own life.

Just Say Goodbye publicly premiered on October 25, 2017, at the NewFilmmakers New York Film Festival. It has been screened at the Alexandria Film Festival, Vero Beach Wine and Film Festival, and won the Indie Spirit Best Director award for a feature film at the Boston International Film Festival. It was been praised as a "no-budget masterpiece," that "has reached heights that rival even the big screen giants."

Plot
Except in moments of approaching thunderstorms, Sarah Morin is always in control. Her outgoing personality makes her a magnet for friends, but she chooses to spend most of her time with her best friend of ten years, artistically gifted introvert Jesse Peterson. Jesse’s introversion makes him a magnet as well; for abuse by Chase Gibbons, school bully extraordinaire.

Since his mother’s suicide when he was age six, Jesse has lived alone with his alcoholic father, Rick. Rick leans not only on the cane he tows about, but also on Jesse to forgo half of his school lunch everyday so he can eat; after all, what little money they have is best spent on booze binges, not groceries.

Chase’s interest in Sarah makes Jesse a barrier he’s hell bent on penetrating. Until he can break their concrete bond, Chase occupies himself with injecting daily misery into Jesse’s life.

After nearly drowning at the hands of Chase, Sarah grills Jesse as to why he barely defended himself. Reluctantly, Jesse confesses that he’ll be abandoning his life soon anyway. And when better to do this than while Sarah is off on vacation in two weeks. He plans his final exit for his birthday, right after his mother’s prized irises bloom one more time. Why on his birthday? So his father won’t feel guilty for not giving a gift for the tenth year in a row.

No longer harboring the weight of such a secret, Jesse’s spirits actually lift; he just wants to spend his final days hanging out with his best friend. He warns Sarah, however, that if she divulges his intentions to anyone, he’ll just pull the trigger earlier – literally.

Taking him at his word, Sarah is on a lone quest to save her best friend from himself. But each and every effort fails in succession; she is not going to change his mind.

Unable to convince Jesse he’s doing the wrong thing, Sarah resorts to confiding in Chase. She begs him to take Jesse under his wing and treat him like one of the guys. He agrees - but only if she will date him; she can’t betray her disgust for Chase after everything he’s done to them. So again, she’s on her own.

But suddenly Jesse receives a great call from his art teacher. She took it upon herself to submit some of his pieces to the college of art where she graduated from. If he could gather a portfolio of his other works together, there could be a full scholarship available to him if they like the rest of his work.

Jesse relays the news to Sarah. He admits that he might just reconsider his intentions if the school likes his work and he had a way out of the town. Sarah is elated. His art is beautiful. There’s no doubt in her mind that the scholarship is already his. She can go on her trip after all, and keep her best friend.

While Sarah relaxes on her trip, Jesse comes home and finds his father tending a fire in the back of the house. He pays it little attention until he goes inside the house and discovers all of his completed drawing tablets missing from his top drawer. Jesse rages out the door to find his father is indeed burning all of his artwork; his reason for living.

Knowing she won’t have cell service the following day, Sarah calls to wish Jesse a happy birthday the night before. She immediately detects the tone in his voice. Distraught, Jesse says his final goodbye announcing that, come midnight, he’ll be gone. And he hangs up before she can argue.

She tries desperately to reach him again and again, but the phone rings busy. She races along the highway to try and save her friend one more time. It’s only when she gets a flat tire that she brings herself to call Rick at his daily watering hole. But Rick rebuffs her story. It isn’t until she screams “What are you waiting for? Run!” that he falls from his barstool and launches himself into the night to reach his jaded son before it’s too late.

Cast

 * Max MacKenzie as Jesse Peterson
 * Jospeh Colangelo as Young Jesse Peterson
 * Katerina Eichenberger as Sarah Morin
 * William Galatis as Rick Peterson, Jesse's father
 * Jesse Walters as Chase Gibbons, Jesse's bully
 * Pamela Jayne Morgan as Phyllis Morin, Sarah's mother
 * Charlotte Zanolli as Christine Gibbons, Chase's mother
 * Olivia Nossif as Olivia Peterson, Jesse's mother
 * Aidan Laliberte as Dan, Chase's friend
 * Richard Wingert as Justin, Chase's friend
 * KK Walulak as Kate, Chase's girlfriend
 * Paul Walting as Sarah's father
 * Gene O'Shea as Pete, the bartender
 * Laurie Como O'Shea as Mrs. Johnson, the school secretary
 * Anthony Gabrielle as Mr. Lewis, a teacher
 * Lauryn Winiarski as Brianna, Sarah's college roommate

Pre-Production
Pre-production began in November of 2015, when the Walting approached O'Shea about adapting her script into a short film. The duo eventually decided to produce a slightly modified version of the original script. As producers, Walting and O'Shea crowdfunded the film through Indiegogo, a popular fundraising website. The original budget goal for the film was $6000, and the first campaign raised over $8000. The newly founded Walting Entertainment team also received a grant from Unify Against Bullying, an anti-bullying coalition in Western Massachusetts. The film had raised $10,000 by the time production began. Walting and O'Shea cast the film in March of 2016

Production
Principle photography on Just Say Goodbye began on May 1, 2016. Production teams could only film on weekends, due to the fact that Walting was only a sophomore in high school. Many cast members were also full time students during production as well. Both MacKenzie and Eichenberger graudated from high school and college, respectively, during production. Production wrapped after its fifteenth day on June 22, 2016.

Post-Production
Editing began one month after filming was completed. Additional fundraising efforts were held in order to keep the project afloat. The film was edited in Walting's home basement, with sound editing occuring at Rotary Records, a studio in West Springfield, Massachusetts. Post production took ten months to complete.