Professional Chef Lee Wright became a chef at 16. He competed on MasterChef: The Professionals at the age of 20 and became a Head Chef at a major hotel by the time he was 22. By the age of 33, he had suffered four mental breakdowns. We are now developing a documentary called Chasing Perfection: One Chef's Journey To Find Mental Wellness.  His last breakdown was in 2024, and Lee ended up spending 7.5 weeks hospitalized. In this documentary, Lee bravely shares his story to aid his own recovery, help other chefs, and ensure those in the hospitality industry understand they are not alone. We hope to end the stigma surrounding talking about and seeking help for mental health issues.

 

Here's the trailer for Chasing Perfection: One Chef's Journey To Find Mental Wellness

 

 

To fully document Lee's journey to mental wellness, we will need to employ multiple production crews for several production days, weeks, and months, and travel extensively to and from the U.K., parts of the U.S., and potentially other countries. We will be required to obtain equipment, identify and secure production locations, pay location fees, and obtain and pay for production permits. Additionally, we need to pay for global and regional production insurance policies, conduct interviews, and shoot footage. We will be filming in various locations, both indoors and outdoors. Since Lee uses slalom waterskiing as part of his recovery and balance, we will also have to rent and source boats and boat operators for many parts of the production. For the post-production of the movie, it will be necessary to employ a digitizing team to ingest and organize footage, stock photo images, and additional video clips. We will need to hire multiple editors, sound and graphics designers, and narrative talent. As we develop this movie, we must also create and implement comprehensive marketing, promotion, and awareness campaigns to ensure global distribution via streaming platforms, movie theaters, art houses, culinary and hospitality venues, events, film, and art festivals, and mental health events. The budget for this type of movie production, marketing, promotions, and global distribution ranges from a minimum of $150,000 to well over $500,000 USD.