We are moving stories

“Plasmid is not just a genre piece, it’s going to take you through a journey which will unfold over a night. It’s not just what happens to her, it’s about how it changes her and her view of the world thereafter. My goal is to take you through the unknown while finding something beautiful and relatable to hold onto.”

“This is dedicated to all those people so they know that they are not alone. I had to learn that difficult times are a part of life. Without limitations, the purpose of living wouldn’t exist. So this film is not just for a group of people. It is for anybody who has been in the face of limitations and at some point found no way out of it. I guess that would be everybody.”

“The idea of changelings — mothers believing their babies have been replaced with look-alike creatures — appears in the folklore of various cultures. When my oldest child was an infant, I kind of got it – babies are wonderful, but they can also seem incredibly alien. The first year of motherhood wasn’t an easy time for me. In the early months, before babies smile, they can really only communicate by crying, and they sleep in little spurts. Caring for a baby can be pretty isolating, and combined with sleep deprivation, the whole experience can be a little crazy-making. Postpartum depression is also more common than we realize. Adding a magical/supernatural layer to this makes it even more interesting.”

“I wanted to tell a gripping thriller about a young girl during the farm crisis illustrating a time period when a major shift in American politics and food production happened which affects us to this day. It’s a fictional story set against real events that people need to know about.”

“It is a psychological thriller, so for a significant part of the film, the viewer is working hard to understand the world that they have entered. They recognise that there is a young woman at the centre of the story and that she is in crisis. The other characters are more opaque, but there is something of the archetype in each of them.”

“As a director I was interested in externalising the thoughts and feelings going through someone’s head, so that every time Evie sees or hears something that reminds her of what has happened, it triggers her memories which are rattling round in her head. I was also interested in making a thriller but one from the heroine’s point of view rather than us the viewers looking a woman going through something.”

“All of us have been faced with life decisions where all you have are two bad options – call it lose, lose. That’s where we find our leading lady at the beginning. So she makes this radical choice to impersonate a missing girl. If she can pull off the deception, she will be safe and the family will have their daughter back. If no one ever finds out, maybe they could all live happily ever after.”

“There’s a trope in many thriller films that the woman is never believed, and she often appears unhinged as she tries to convince everyone of what she knows to be the truth. Rosemary’s Baby is a brilliant example, but it’s everywhere in psychological thrillers. The Invisible Man, The Witch, Hereditary.

In Seafoam, I was also musing on that ever-present, unsettling feeling of being watched, looked at, observed and followed that many women and female-presenting people experience in the world. It can really screw with our mental health, and I wanted to create that experience within a film, which I am now realizing is totally masochistic. Haha.”

“It’s unlike anything else you would have seen before. It’s genre bending, it’s thrilling, it’s funny, it’s disturbing. It makes you shuffle on your seat for the themes explored are so uncomfortable and you want to stop watching but you are glued to your seat at the same time.”

“You should watch this movie to see something original and refreshing if you love thrillers and horror movies and are curious about a rated-R movie with dolls.”

“Three Feet Deep is a film noir inspired crime thriller that captivates at every turn and keeps you on the edge of your seat. Not only does it entertain you, it holds up a mirror to you and begs the question “what would you do in this situation?”.”

“TB: I love exploring the depths of love, pain and mystery in all its complexities. In Sound there is the isolation of the main character. After her violent car accident and loss of hearing she struggles to cope and find her place in the world. This is true with a lot of people. Tragedy splinters. Some people never recover and those stories need to be told.”

“It’s a short, psychological thriller that takes you on the journey through the labyrinth of Audrey’s mind. Even though it’s a surreal, stylized piece, you can relate to Audrey’s struggle and want to find out what happened to her dead sister and anyone gets scared of their own minds sometimes.”

“While it was produced as a psychological thriller, “Honey Do” does touch on some very timely themes. This film touches on issues of gender inequality and misperception.”

“This film is a chilling story of double-dealing, violence and murder that will keep you on the edge of your seat with a roller coaster ride of the unexpected. It also has black comedy elements. And amazing actors.”

“At conception of the script I had no idea Donald Trump was considering a run for president. As it turns out, the film is very relevant to what is happening in America and around the world in terms of racism and divisiveness. The first draft of the script was completed a year before the 2016 presidential election. When we watch the film today it kind of takes us directly into a mind set of the different view points people seem to have. This film has really taught me that religion, and of course the way you are raised, truly determines how you operate in the world. It affects our everyday decision making process.”

“We have attempted to make a beautiful and complicated short film that circulates significant questions: How do the young and the old cope with fear of death? How does a parent deal with an extremely sick child? Who is “upstairs?” How do we keep our children safe? Is there such a thing as a productive dark fantasy?”

“I’ve been surprised just how disturbed some viewers have been. There’s almost no violence onscreen, but many have found the implied violence overwhelming. Some have even asked if everything is okay between me and my wife (just fine, thanks.)”

“I think I’m most surprised by how often viewers judge the film based on its genre without looking deeper. Sure, it’s a creepy, dark thriller but it’s also a mediation on the power and danger inherent in the creative process, the fluidity of our identity in an increasingly digital world, and the role of perspective in our personal narratives. Everyone wants their work viewed thoughtfully but the reality is our lives are so over-stimulated now that we have to quickly categorize things into familiar boxes to make it through the day. This creates really cool opportunities for subversion in art but it also serves to isolate audiences into safe and comfortable experiences.”

“This film was made to appeal to those who appreciate the mystery/thriller genre, and hopefully by integrating these genre elements into the film, audiences will be entertained while also being exposed to an important perspective.”

“Setting a thriller in the world of a small town bridge club felt so exciting, and telling a story that relied mainly on female characters over 50 whose marriage or kids weren’t their primary concern felt worthwhile to me.”

“My film deals a lot with mental health, which is something that I take very seriously. It’s a very nuanced topic, so during the writing process, I tried to keep it as personal as possible, while adding in elements that fill in the genre gaps. On top of that, the story deals with truth vs reality, loneliness, and the courage to let go of that built-up anxiety. Even if it doesn’t work out at the end.”

“My favourite thrillers are the ones that use the form to touch on some truth about human nature, whether in the context of a marriage (Knife in the Water), or in society at large (Blue Velvet). I’ve always been interested in the “rules” surrounding identity and “Bad Girl” was my way of exploring these themes… and also unsettling the shit out of the audience.”

“The film is in many ways about grief and the lengths that people will go to rid themselves of it. Relationships fall apart, good people do terrible things – all these things can happen when people are pushed to their limits.”

“One of the characters in the film says: if you’re old enough to fuck, you’re old enough to be fucked with. We don’t push the envelope: we tear it up and throw the pieces off the terrace of St. Peter’s Basilica.”