A father-daughter duo in Connecticut are passing the time in lockdown by bringing their favorite movies to life, and they’re feeding thousands of people across the country while doing it.
Dan Presser and his 4-year-old daughter, Madison, started recreating famous scenes from classic movies like “Pretty Woman,” “Mrs. Doubtfire” and “Forrest Gump” in March when the grim reality of the coronavirus pandemic first set in.
“March and April were really chaotic, total lockdown to the point where we couldn’t even see our neighbors,” Presser, 37, told CNN. “It felt like there were 72 hours in every day, so we just wanted to find fun things to do with the kids. Madison happened to be dressed up [like an animal] one day and she loves ‘Lion King’ so we filmed the scene of Mufasa falling off the cliff.”
Since March, Madison and her dad have recreated 35 movie scenes, garnering thousands of views on YouTube and on Instagram.
Some of their most popular videos include the scene from “Titanic,” in which Jack drew Rose like one of his French girls, and another from “The Shining,” when the deranged writer peeks through a hole in the door he tore through with an axe.
At first, their goal was to have fun, kill time, and maybe even entertain a few people. But as the videos grew more popular, Presser saw an opportunity to help families struggling to make ends meet during the lockdown and to even teach Madison about the importance of giving back.
Presser created a donation page to raise money for Feeding America, which he attached to all of their videos. So far, the family has raised more than $12,000 for the non-profit network of food banks.
(Photo courtesy of Dan Presser Instagram)
