An animated musical about a lonely widower awaiting a Pacemaker to save his life who gets his real second chance at true love by opening his heart and accepting his grandson’s identity.

Director’s Vision for ‘Pacemaker’

The story behind Pacemaker from Writer, Co-Director, and Composer Christopher Lennertz:

“Pacemaker was born from an idea that I had after watching the joy, love, and life return to my ailing (and far grumpier) Father In Law almost instantly after having a pacemaker implanted to restore the rhythm and flow of his heart. At the same time, my oldest child had come out as bisexual, and later as transgender. As my 14-year-old son began to share this truth, while coming of age and developing his first crush, his heart also seemed to find its own rhythm and flow once again. The song “Rhythm of Your Heart” quickly followed, and I knew I had to make this movie to show the world that love is the universal connection and the rhythm of someone’s heart is theirs and theirs alone to define…but then by sharing it, it can help others find the same joy, love, and acceptance. Along the way, I have found and enlisted my creative soulmates, and together, we are going to take the world on a vivid musical journey that has the heart, beauty, emotion, and catchiness of a Disney classic…but is a story that they aren’t yet allowed to make, now, when the world needs to hear it most”

From co-director Brian Vincent Rhodes:

“Why Pacemaker? Why now?

This film is about love and understanding.

Pacemaker is a generational love story. It also happens to feature a wonderful character that is trans. I think this distinction is powerful. One, because we specifically now need more stories about the human experience of love in the world. And two, because we are telling the story from the grandfather’s point of view, representing the past, and how we all can relate through love.

Pacemaker is subversive, but not in the way you would expect. We have a tendency to showcase marginalized communities as struggling exclusively with their identities and not in the way we all experience life as humans – that is through love, heartbreak, death, etc. Pacemaker is an optimistic story because well, we feel like that kind of story needs to be seen.

We live in a time where, thankfully, people are empowered to exist honestly. To speak for Cody would be inauthentic and in order to make this film, we realize there is a massive life experience that we need to gain from others in Cody’s community.

This is the exciting part for me – making a film about love and understanding.

What more could you ask for?”