“As I started to research it, I began to come across a lot of information about discrimination lawsuits, particularly by women. Some were of a sexual nature, but many just seemed to be about the members of a closed society saying to women ‘just because we have to let you in, it doesn't mean we have to make you feel welcome’.”
Read More“Jenny Donhesier (my cowriter) and I were working on a pretty heavy/complicated idea and this dumb half-thought of a male stripper unknowingly stripping for ghosts just really cracked us up. We pretty much abandoned the other idea and dove headfirst into this.”
Read More“I grew up in Japan watching my American dad work on Japanese variety programs and TV shows as a comedian/performer. So from a young age I wanted to perform and have a creative career. [But] I realized that there weren’t roles written for someone like me. So I started writing for myself.”
Read More“It started as a film about student loans, but then turned into this diatribe on boomers. Ryan always brings up how his elementary school teachers in the early 90s would talk about the heavy financial and ecological burden baby boomers were setting up future generations with, so this vitriol between millennials and boomers has been stewing for 30 years.”
Read More“There is no electricity or running water. Even a well equipped and resourceful person would have trouble finding a way back to safety. It was never our intention to make a horror movie. The horror came to us. We kept the elements simple and understated and stuck to our MO to keep the scary things suggestive and out of frame as much as possible.”
Read More“A filmmaker was the very first thing I ever aspired to be. It started from imagining having an animated series that reflected my life while watching Saturday morning cartoons to watching daily syndicated sitcoms and weekend movies on The WB and eagerly desiring to be the person responsible for creating such content that could provoke a range of emotions.”
Read More“Dede (who plays Mike), and I had some great conversations with regards to this police brutality mess. We’ve experienced America differently, but there’s plenty that we relate to as black men. Though difficult to articulate, we knew it was necessary for us to at least try and express how we felt. It was about creating something that could act as a testament to the times we were in.”
Read More“For a while now, I’ve been trying to develop a more complex understanding of how human memory works. It’s a fascinating challenge trying to process our memories into something immersive and yet concise. A real priority right now is trying to get back to work with my hands again and creating something outside the online world. Getting everything ready for a collaboration with nature and natural data.”
Read More“My favorite movie of all time is probably You've Got Mail. I love rom-coms but feel the genre hasn't aged well in my community. I challenged myself to take tenets of the rom-com and flip them to reflect the people I knew. I wanted to keep qualities like charm and sweetness, but reframe the story.”
Read More“I wrote the dialogue as a reaction to my experiences working as a model. Relying on my image as a commodity and main source of income remains incredibly unsettling to me. Everything from my workout routine to my personal hygiene are all being used to sell a product. I wanted the tension of the film to expose something invasive and unpalatable behind a beautiful image.”
Read More“This is my second proof-of-concept short for a feature I wrote after coming out of a coma due to brain injury (true story). Both films were born out of darling scenes I was forced to cut from the feature. It was my way of saving them. The progression ended up mimicking where I was in my recovery. If Main Blessings was about the struggle to re-enter society and build a new identity, Main Absolves is about dropping that struggle.”
Read More“I was sitting behind a nun on a bus in NYC and I had this idea that underneath her habit was the longest braid EVER. That’s really what it was. I just planned to shoot a little sketch on my own of that gag. But in writing it, I really had to figure out who she was, because (to me at least) nuns are super mysterious!”
Read More“As we began to write, we found ourselves lost in an unproductive argument over which one of us would act in the film. This was the story we needed to tell, and it was far more captivating and honest than the story we were trying to write. From there, we built the script by modeling the absurdities displayed by eccentric people in our lives and pushed them even further.”
Read MoreIn "Poly Cat" I wanted to show a polyamorous "throuple" experiencing the same mundane problems as any monogamous couple. Non-traditional relationships as no more or less ideal than anything else. "Wayne's Been a Real Good Influence" comes out a certain gender and relationship anxiety. The idea of losing yourself to gain acceptance, love and family...
Read More“I studied Theater at UCLA. While I was there I acted in some pretty bad student films, but I was also experiencing a film set for the first time. As an actor I felt like I lacked agency on set. I wanted to have more of a say in the filmmaking process and, especially as a person of color, in the stories that were being told.”
Read More“I don't have a very deep resume in filmmaking as this is my first ever film I've ever made. I've taken interest in this medium particularly to tell the story of my people from our lens. Most films document Native American life from the outside. It's time to give our actual perspective.”
Read More“I got interested in filmmaking because I enjoy doing things I'm completely unqualified for and that scare the shit out of me. I started out as a photographer and was feeling anxious to challenge myself and move into motion. I found myself on photoshoots thinking of film ideas that were funny and interesting so decided that was where I needed to put my energy.”
Read More“I really enjoy the production design process and wanted to create something with a dreamlike tone and loved the idea of playing around with space and memory. I really wanted to capture desires through fantastical ways.”
Read More“I was thinking a lot about the things I wish I’d known and seen when I was growing up in the closet, and how naive I was going into my first handful of sexual experiences. I became really interested in the idea of trying to flip the script on the “losing your virginity” narrative by centering it around queer teenagers, and by portraying queer sex very tenderly and honestly.”
Read More“Then after watching Persona and Three Women, I thought a step further. That maybe these two women are the same person. They represent those two sides of us. The side of us that wants to fold our arms and judge, and the other side of us that enjoys participating, regardless of any rules or norms. That’s something I struggle with often myself.”
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