Indie Spotlight: In ‘Homesick,’ A Sitcom Setup Joins The Fight Against Cancer

We receive a ton of tips every day from independent creators, unaffiliated with any major motion picture studios, television networks, new media studios, or other well-funded online video entities. The Indie Spotlight is where we’ll write about and shout out to a select few of them and bring you up to speed on the great (and sometimes not-so-great) attention-grabbing series you probably haven’t heard about until now. Read previous installments here.

Moving across the ocean is hard enough as it is, but moving in with a cancer patient and her sassy daughter presents additional challenges. The comedic situations that arise from that setup are the building blocks of Homesick, an autobiographical web series based off the cohabitation of co-stars Pat Giguere, Kiren Lall, and Elise Lall.

Giguere, an American, moved to England and found a residence in the Lall household. The matriach of the family, Kiren, battled breast cancer with a tough mentality, while her precocious daughter Elise gave Giguere plenty of snappy talk. Those character traits can now be seen on screen in Homesick, a six-episode comedy that arrived last year.

Homesick is not the first web series to combine cancer and comedy, but nonetheless, it is still a charming and well-paced sitcom, with nine-year-old Elise providing a particularly inspired performance. Check it out, and know that by doing so, you are performing a charitable service: All ad revenue earned by the series will be donated to the Cancer Research Institute.

OTHER UNDER-THE-RADAR SERIES TO CHECK OUT

• Ur_Tadhana. Queer life in The Philippines is explored through the eyes of a vlogger.
• Sacrifices. A young rapper faces challenges in his hometown of Rochester.
• High and Mighty. A guy gets superpowers from weed in this Sundance hit.

Got a series you’d like to see featured in the Indie Spotlight? Be sure to contact us here. For best coverage, please include a full episode in your e-mail.