“Since Waste Away touches on relevant issues in the world today, my biggest creative challenge was to ensure that my film would not be lost in the mix of environmental and social PSA films. To achieve this, I used surrealism and symbolism to indirectly express the core themes.”
Read More“The idea started after a conversation with a school counselor and her stories about lockdown drills. It felt surreal that those intense training sessions are becoming normal for kids. Added to that, the absurd idea of arming teachers was floating around so I wanted to explore that.”
Read More“My hope is that the film portrays educators’ remarkable ability of communicating ideas effectively and connecting with students amidst the challenges that come with remote instruction. There’s often an absurdity to the virtual teaching dynamic that I think many of us can relate to right now.”
Read More“I met a girl. She had bandaids on her fingers…I started to think about a petty crime thriller. Cat burglars became attractive. Wanted to shoot that world through the lens of realism.”
Read More“The seed actually came to me from an incident that happened when a close friend of mine was racially profiled by police and had to spend the night in jail for absolutely no reason. When he told me what happened I was very upset, as an artist, I felt the need to respond or avenge him in a sense, so I made this film.”
Read More“I wanted to tell the story of my wife the dog whisperer. And create a characterization in an untraditional way, that would allow me to be showy with an edit. I was also working through a lot of anxieties at the time (who isn’t?).”
Read More“In this film, I get insanely vulnerable, and instead of hiding behind a script or actors, my face takes up a majority of the screen. Getting that intimate and trusting that the audience wouldn’t think I was crazy was definitely the hardest part. But ironically, it was incredibly cathartic to lay it all out.”
Read More“The editing was the most challenging part about making this film since there’s barely any filmed footage and it’s made up of mostly screenshots, stock, and photoshopped images. It can be tricky to make those assets entertaining.”
Read More“At first, I wanted to make this film in Moscow. But after we had a Skype Call [with the writer, Lisa Astakhova]… I felt I need to go to LA to film it together. So, I am on a plane to LA, making my very first trip to the United States, flying to make a movie with someone I’ve never met before and we still didn’t have actors. It sounded like crazy plan.”
Read More“I grew up in suburban Indiana just outside of Chicago. My family loved movies. We'd go to the theater or rent a movie every weekend. My parents are from India and Bollywood was an integral part of our viewing list. So storytelling and film were a constant part of my life.”
Read More“Much of the work I create is based on my experiences growing up as a sibling of an older sister on the Autism spectrum. My exploration of families with neurodivergent individuals is what lead to the creation of For the Rabbits.”
Read More“Everything started with graffiti, the night, the city and the people. I used to spend long nights out around the city graffiting together with my crew. The more I got into it the more I realized It wasn’t really just graffiti, rather it was the locations and the people we chanced upon every time we were out.”
Read More“I’ve wanted to tell a narrative using stock footage for awhile, and under quarantine it became the only way I could make something. The deliberately broad nature of stock footage results in an impersonal quality that emotionally fit the story.”
Read More“At school I was always cool with the custodial staff. I became interested in how janitors and students share a space but are from very different socio-economic status'. I wanted to write a conversation that two janitors might have while working.”
Read More“The initial story arc for Hi Mom was about a girl who falls in love and keeps calling her mom cause she doesn't trust her gut... but I quickly became uninterested in that story and called upon Tij to help me write what I really wanted to write — a story about a girl losing her shit.”
Read More“I wanted a project that looked into how we as girls look to our mothers for guidance in the process of discovering our femininity/sexuality and meanwhile how the world around us has expectations for how we should be. But I also wanted to celebrate the intimate moments that a young girl shares with her mother.”
Read More“The initial idea was put together from fragments of different memories of me and my friends searching for skate spots. I think it came down to the realization that a lot of the things that shaped us kind of happened in those in between moments that we tend to overlook.”
Read More“I’m originally from Moscow and moved to LA at 18 to make movies (classic). As far as I remember I’ve always wanted to work in film. At first, I thought I should be an actress but after not getting any parts as a child actor, I decided that I should do everything else besides acting.”
Read More“For the decade or so after, I worked as a creative and video producer in the advertising industry. About 3 years back, I had this huge realization that I had always wanted to direct and was letting fear stop me. So here I am.”
Read More“There was a VHS tape of KIDS sitting in our common room (not sure how that landed in a 14 year old girls dorm) but I sat down and watched it and I was completely blown away. Later that year I went on to watch Girl Interrupted and The Virgin Suicides and loved every ounce of honesty.”
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