REM was actor April Phillips' first outing as a director, after writing and acting in 2013 short Letter to Hope. Security guard Gail Morris (Phillips) is sent to move a homeless man from an old army fort on private land, and discovers he is a disgraced neurologist whose experiments on his own brain left him mute but able to predict tragic events. Morris wants to use the doctor's 'gift' to save lives, but by doing so she endangers her own. REM was shot at Fort Ballance on Wellington's Miramar Peninsula, and won multiple awards. Phillips was nominated for a Best Actress Award at the Madrid International Film Festival.