5 Questions with Karina Adriana Dandashi ("Short Shorts")

1) Can you talk briefly about your background, and how you first got interested in filmmaking?

Since I was little I've had a passion for storytelling. Only when I was writing or creating did I fully feel like myself. In high school, an apprenticeship at the Pittsburgh Filmmakers showed me filmmaking was an artform that could turn into a career. But being a second-generation kid with two immigrant parents, I felt the classic pressure to pursue a college major that would result in a “real job” and ensure financial stability. I studied Politics at NYU thinking I could go into law, but my creative urges won out. I graduated with a BA in Journalism and Film Studies while interning in development at independent production houses in the city. These opportunities fueled my desire to build my own voice in an industry that was severely lacking the representation I wanted to see.

2) What was the initial idea for this project and how did it evolve from there?

I had this story inside of me for a long time. There was something about the memory of not being able to wear short shorts when I was younger that stuck with me into adulthood. Like, what WAS the big deal about short shorts? It was through these smaller moments that I started being conscious of my cultural and religious identity and how it separated me from my friends. I grew up doing a total Hannah Montana - trying to live the best of both worlds while ultimately being unfulfilled in both spaces. The concept of SHORT SHORTS was to reveal a window into my day-to-day growing up while straddling two cultures. I also wanted to show a character who was influenced by her friends just as much as her parents. By the end, she’s still trying to figure out who she is and how she wants to live in the world. Once I realized my intentions for the story and character, it was all about the drafts.

3) What was the biggest challenge in making this film? And the easiest part?

This was my first short film and the first time I’ve written/directed anything. The learning curve was pretty steep and keeping up while wearing the two hats of director and lead actress was difficult. Everything from shot listing to calling “action” on set, to sitting in the edit was all brand new. The whole time I was freaking out, thinking to myself, “I’m doing it!” but I didn’t know, in fact, what exactly I was doing.

The easiest part was finding a producer that would champion the story. My producer Katie immediately resonated with the idea of clothes informing identity growing up. I’m thankful she and my co-producer Kieran had the film production experience that I lacked in order to bring my vision to life.

4) What’s a film you’ve seen recently, new or old, that you really loved and why?

I recently watched Tayarisha Poe’s feature debut SELAH AND THE SPADES on Amazon Prime and was mesmerized by its stylized storytelling and dreamy cinematography. I love watching art that feels like it’s breaking some kind of mold or creating new rules. It makes me buzz with inspiration and get excited for my own feature one day.

5) What’s next for you?

Currently I’m a Creative Culture fellow at the Jacob Burns Film Center where I’ll be working on two narrative shorts about sexuality and colorism and two short docs that thematically accompany them. All my projects will continue to explore the gray area of what it means to identify as an Arab American Muslim woman. I’m looking forward to discovering more of myself this next year and making personal art that reflects that.

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IG: @karinadandashi