We are moving stories

“I made Girl Knight because I had a pressing image of a young girl clanking around the world in a knight’s outfit in my head for many years - I made the film to try and understand what this image was trying to tell me... We make films and tell stories in the hope to share a piece of ourselves with the rest of the world - I feel the hope is always, in that sharing, that someone, somewhere connects to what moved you to make it in the first place.”

“Tape is based on my friend’s experience of first love. I found her story compelling, tragic and beautiful, so I wanted to adapt it into my AFI thesis film. In general I want to open up the conversation on queer experience and the injustice queer people face as minority. The attitudes towards the LGTB community has changed throughout history, and it’s important to remind us what so many still experience - injustice, harassment and bullying over one’s sexual & gender identity. Not to mention the traumas some people have because of not being accepted for who they are.”

“I think at its core, it is a universal love story. The film is often categorized as a LGBT coming-of-age drama. But if we put all labels aside, I think it’s simply a place we have all been at some point in our lives. We’ve all lived through the uncertainty of not knowing how the person we care about feels or how our love would be received, and taking the leap anyway. So my hope is for it to validate the courage people have when they’re vulnerable enough to express themselves, whichever way they can.”

“The overall theme of my film is love – specifically the unsettling, intoxicating, destabilizing emotions we experience when we fall in love for the first time. The emotional charge is even greater when you fall in love with someone of the same sex. All the stories in my film are true. I think the best way to tell a universal story is by talking about what’s most familiar to us.”

“I wanted to watch something silly, stupid, and a little bit smart. Then, I wrote a little something and rallied a crew – an incredible, incredible crew. The whole production was just a whim that snowballed.”

“The unique aspect of this film is that it takes serious subject matter and places it in a comedic context. I like this contrast that you often see in Luis Bunuel’s films or early Kurosawa. I also worked very hard to showcase a homosexual relationship between two women as real as possible - a relationship you rarely see and was very much inspired by the lesbian couple portrayed in the film “What’s Cooking” by Gurinder Chadha. ”

“Driven to create a new landscape of who we see in movies, Pay to Stay focuses on a multi-racial LGBT love story nestled in the heart of a monster movie. Thematically, I’ve always been fascinated with the trust we give to technology. We say yes to terms & conditions we don’t read, we give away our intimate secrets to strangers online, and we casually give away all of our information to companies that make millions of it. With news stories surfacing about the assaults on women in Ubers, and the case of the man who was trapped and assaulted in an AirBnB in Spain, how can we continue to blindly trust what technology allows us to do?”

“The audio was the biggest evolution. We tried many different things; dialogue, music, dialogue and music, etc. We also went through several different types of music. But in the end, we found that the original score plus sound design was the most impactful. Our composer, Allen Orr, did such an amazing job capturing the emotion with his music.”

“In my opinion, THIS film is the antidote for our current political climate. Art and culture will saves us in these chaotic times.”

“We were sick of women mainly shown as somebody’s wife, daughter, girlfriend, affair or victim so we made the main characters Emily and Ray who aren’t defined by love or abuse and are intricate, detailed individuals. Ultimately, we created ‘So Long’ to promote women’s rights, lgbtqi+ rights and intersectional feminism.”

“At its core, this film is about relationships. Regardless of your orientation, we all experience the high and lows of being romantically involved with one or multiple people. I also believe that everyone has ‘the one that got away’. In regards to the personal theme of the film, this story is about living your truth.”

“The film, at its core, is about a couple who have lost themselves in co-dependency. Though the circumstances are unique, the experience of losing your individual identity in a relationship is common. Sometimes, we stay in relationships because we’re afraid we won’t be able to find love elsewhere. Sometimes, we don’t realize that the strength of the relationship comes at the cost of personal growth. This film explores the sacrifice it can take to embrace who you are or who you might be. ”

“We’re very appreciative of the opportunity to be showcased on this platform. If we can reach one person that will feel represented by this film or inspired to go out and make something that’s underrepresented in this landscape, we’ll be delighted. Everyone on our team has stumbled on something that changed them forever when they least expected it.”

“As the characters are Asian-American, it opens a window into immigrant life that I grew up in. What makes these themes universal is the struggles that the characters go through, because the heart and soul of the story is about relationships - about the power of friendships and family that can both destroy and heal us.”

“This short is about generations of working-class women getting older, and how precarious having eldercare was and remains. Aunt Mame exists solely in flashbacks as a forgotten relative, ostracized from our family for being queer. Each visit marks a holiday and a different girlfriend to introduce to the family.”

“The theme of our film is acceptance. Acceptance of yourself, acceptance of your circumstance, and acceptance of changing times. I think we all struggle to be honest with ourselves. We all struggle with duty vs want. And I hope we can all come full circle, as August does, in accepting her past, the choices she made, and doing what she can to move on in a healthier way despite the fact she feels she gave up on something truly special for the greater good.”

“Growing up, my mother would keep me on the straight and narrow, by saying, “whatever is done in the dark, will come to light.” She didn’t know it, but that phrase alone would make me fear the light, which gave me no other option but to live in the dark. This film is the light I needed to find my way out of the darkness… of my very own closet, for I am a queer woman of color.

October 15, 2017, I came out to my family. Owning your shadow is the best way to follow the light…”

“This film is funny and will surprise you. I love watching this film with an audience because everyone laughs for different reasons and it’s always fascinating to see what moments hit or miss. Fawzia, Laura, and Jake had electrifying chemistry on set and they brought the whimsical and brooding characters to life.”

“You know, I have had lesbians express appreciation for showing this side of lesbian life on screen. I have had teenagers and young adults tell me it accurately reflected their experience of being that age. And I have had parents tell me how much it resonated and moved them, mothers and fathers. I have actually been surprised by how many dads have told me how much they loved the film. I think it is accessible, comedic, and heartfelt.”

“Mothers and daughters and Family - The relationship between E and her parents and in particular her mother is very important to the story. It is not as simple as E is a coward for not being out to her parents. As a child of working-class immigrant parents who have sacrificed everything so that she can go to university, E carries the expectations of her whole extended family. She becomes the sole conduit for her mother’s hopes and dreams and the pressure is just too much for her.”

“We met a Hungarian gay couple in Norway, who moved there with their adopted child. They told us that most of the rainbow families leave Hungary the moment they get a child because of the hostile atmosphere. In Hungary rainbow families officially don’t exist, although there must be around 700 families like that. ”

“We were drawn to this story because it is about courage and social change. And people making a stand for respect of difference. And I do think this group of young people changed our world.”