Sometimes the hardest truths arrive too late.
A troubled father longs to rebuild a relationship with his distant daughter. While spending one last day together, he slowly comes to terms with a devastating past and the realization that something is not quite right with his teenage daughter.
Last Day with Lizzy is an independent short narrative film written and directed by Matt Duhamel. The film takes a more dramatic and emotional turn than many later Metamora Films projects, focusing on family tension, unresolved pain, memory, and the fragile space between love and loss.
The Last Day with Lizzy Film follows Mark, a troubled father who longs to rebuild a relationship with his distant teenage daughter. What begins as an attempt to spend one meaningful day together gradually reveals a much more painful reality.
As their time together unfolds, their conversations begin to suggest that something is wrong. Mark is trying to repair what has been broken; however, Lizzy appears to understand something that he has not yet been able to accept.
Written and directed by Matt Duhamel, the film centers on a father who has become separated not only from his family, but also from the reality of what has happened to them. His desire to reconnect with Lizzy drives the story forward.
At first, their final day together feels almost ordinary. Nevertheless, small details gradually make the relationship feel increasingly uneasy. As a result, what initially appears to be a straightforward story about an estranged father and daughter becomes something far more emotional.
Rather than relying on a large production or complicated plot, Last Day with Lizzy stays close to its characters. That intimacy allows the film's final realization to carry much of its emotional weight.
Principal filming took place at a Boy Scout camp in Millcreek Canyon, Utah, outside Salt Lake City. The wooded canyon environment gave the production a secluded, intimate setting that naturally supported the tone of the story.
The mountain surroundings also allowed the film to feel removed from everyday life, which works particularly well as Mark and Lizzy spend their final day together.
Explore Millcreek Canyon, UtahThe production came together under unusually tight conditions. According to a 2014 review by Screen Critix, the approximately twelve-minute film was created in only about twelve hours.
Even with those limitations, the review highlighted the film's cinematography, clear sound, musical score and emotional impact. In addition, the reviewer noted what the production team was able to accomplish with limited time and resources.
“Nicely shot and surprisingly moving.”
For an early Metamora Films narrative project, that combination of a compact production and an emotionally focused story became an important part of the film's identity.
Read the Screen Critix Review
Last Day with Lizzy remains available through the original Metamora Films YouTube archive. Watch the complete short film as it was originally released.
Last Day with Lizzy was created by a small independent cast and production team working together in Utah.
FESTIVAL SELECTION
Last Day with Lizzy Film was selected for the 2014 Logan Film Festival, giving the short narrative film an important early platform during its original release period.
For Metamora Films, the selection helped mark a meaningful moment in the company’s early creative work. While the film is intimate and character-driven, it also reflects a larger interest in emotional storytelling, family tension, and the hidden pain people often carry beneath the surface.
In addition, the festival recognition helped place Last Day with Lizzy within Utah’s independent film community. It also remains an important part of the larger Metamora Films story, especially as the company continues building new work from the Portland–Vancouver region today.
Last Day with Lizzy was fictional, but its emotional foundation came from a very personal place.
In 2014, Matt Duhamel was going through a period when he was not able to see his daughter. Rather than recreating their relationship literally, pieces of that experience were quietly woven into the film.
Feelings of distance, separation, regret, and wanting to hold onto a connection all became part of the emotional undercurrent of the story.
The character of Lizzy carried one especially personal connection: Duhamel's daughter's middle name is Elizabeth. That became the inspiration for the name Lizzy.
Those details are subtle, but they helped give the film an emotional honesty that went beyond the fictional story on screen.
Narrative filmmaking is something Duhamel would like to return to. After years of working largely independently, the hope is to build future short films around stronger collaboration — bringing together filmmakers, performers, and other creative voices instead of carrying so much of the production alone.
Explore more work from Metamora Films, or start a conversation about a documentary, narrative film, educational project, or other story that deserves to be developed with care.
