Phoenix Film Festival / WICKED QUEER Film Festival 2019 - Gamers
An amateur female gamer is given a once in a lifetime opportunity to try out for a pro league gaming team, only to be repressed by self-doubt.
Interview with Writer/Director Searit Huluf, Producer Tiajha Nakahara and Associate Producer Kelley Choi
Congratulations! Why did you make your film?
SEARIT: I first wrote Gamers for my sketch comedy class in San Francisco. It was originally about these white guys playing video games in the children’s section of a library. Growing up, I would always go to the public library near my home to play educational video games -- it was my first introduction to gaming! While writing the sketch, I suddenly realized that I unconsciously wrote it without any women or POCs because I’ve been so used to seeing gaming content with just white male gamers. On my second revision, I purposely swapped the gender and race of my characters to feel and look more like myself. I also started to research about the types of games women play. This research led me down a rabbit hole of articles about how women are treated unfairly in the gaming community and would hide/not reveal their gender to avoid harassment. As I was learning new information about being a female gamer, I realized that this story needed to be a short film.
TIAJHA: As filmmakers, we really came into this topic from a curiosity perspective. After interviewing several women in the communities and who work in the industry, we wanted to shed light on some of their perspectives. It was very clear that there was so much depth in the topic of women in gaming that one short film doesn’t do it justice. But for us, it really boiled down to one question - what is a gamer? Our film certainly doesn’t claim to have answered the question, but I hope it opens a dialogue for one while successfully capturing the raw and relatable emotions of how it feels to never be good enough.
KELLEY: Now is the time to see women on screen, on set, in the director’s seat, behind the camera, all of it. The film excited me from the beginning because not only did it show a badass female gamer in a male-dominant community, but it was clear that the characters we were going to see on screen had to be like us, women of color.
Imagine I’m a member of the audience. Why should I watch this film?
SEARIT: We want to broaden the term “gamer” and re-introduce it with characters we typically don’t see on screen. A lot of the current representation for gamers are not favorable and/or very stereotypically male. We rarely see any media of POCs, WOCs, or LGBTQ+ gamers and we wanted to have a space for this underrepresented group of people.
TIAJHA: I also think it’s a unique story that touches on a broader topic of imposter syndrome and how one can support loved ones through a feeling of undeserved success.
KELLEY: We want people to walk away with something they relate to, whether it be: that you’re a woman of color, LGBTQ, love FPS gaming or cat games, etc. We’re reaching out to a very particular audience.
How do personal and universal themes work in your film?
SEARIT: The main theme of the film is imposter syndrome and how it can really affect women’s goals and aspirations. I personally have dealt with imposter syndrome as a filmmaker. Even while shooting Gamers, I kept questioning myself if I was good enough to direct or write this short. I love filmmaking but I have a habit of doubting my own skills (even though I went to UCLA’s Film School!). I saw these same exact thoughts and emotions when I was talking to women about their own experiences in gaming. The majority of the women that we interviewed for the film didn’t want to call themselves a “gamer”.
TIAJHA: I think another universal theme is the idea of “fitting in”. I remember there was one girl we interviewed who was a huge Pokemon fanatic. She had all the games for the DS and spent a couple of hours a day playing Pokemon, but she didn’t consider herself a gamer. Which came as a shock to us, because we thought she clearly defined as one. She even went to a gaming conference to learn about game development and art design but came back overwhelmed and feeling isolated being one of the only women there. I believe that leads to the thinking that she’s not a part of this gaming community.
KELLEY: Jamie is very hard on herself. Regardless of being known as a reputable player or even getting a message to join a pro-league team, she still suffers from self-doubt.
How have the script and film evolved over the course of their development?
SEARIT: This idea was first a sketch to perform on stage but then I thought it was better suited as a short film. I also combined this sketch with another short story I was writing, which was about a queer couple having an argument about their relationship. It was Tiajha’s idea to link both those stories together for Gamers.
TIAJHA: Yeah, there was something about the oddity of old people in the kids' section of the library playing computer games that felt unique. Then we decided to make the old men into female protagonists based on a simple thought that we’ve never seen women portrayed playing games on screen (and to our disarray that we didn’t even blink twice before writing about white men). However, even after she adapted the sketch into a short film with female gamers, there was a struggle with developing the conflict. That’s when I remembered another pitch of her’s and posed a question to her: “Wouldn’t it be interesting if the couple were gamers? and What would it look like if two gamers in a relationship were arguing?”. I think that steered it into the direction we see in the final film today. And as we interviewed and talked to women who played games, it helped us shape the story and characters.
SEARIT: Tiajha, Kelley, and I have our own experience as gamers but we knew we wanted to get feedback for our pro-gamer character, Jamie. Because of this, we interviewed over 20 women who play games to hear their first-hand experience about how women are treated in the gaming community. We also brought on three gaming consultants in our production who were constantly giving us feedback on our characters and game designs.
KELLEY: The script has come so far! By the time I joined, Searit had the first draft and the characters introduced to me had been established as the Jamie and Taylor we see on screen today. In the early drafts, the characters were more one-dimensional. It took time, notes, reviews, and tons of drafts during development, but Searit really put depth and deep-rooted feelings into the Jamie and Taylor we ended up. Our amazing actresses, Destiny Ekwueme and Andrea Guidry, did an amazing job portraying them.
What type of feedback have you received so far?
SEARIT: We shared this film with some of our friends and a majority said that they have never seen this type of story before. One of my male coworkers was intrigued that a majority of women who game have to hide their identity to feel safe while playing.
TIAJHA: I’ve seen an interesting reaction from a male gamer actually. To paraphrase, he immediately went into “but men experience harassment online too and it’s not a gender thing it’s just people being assholes. Success should be merit based on skills”.
Has the feedback surprised or challenged your point of view?
SEARIT: One of the surprising feedback we got is that a majority of our female friends related to Jamie’s experience but in their own career. I have friends that work in entertainment, business, and in tech - they easily see themselves in Jamie’s shoes and not feeling included.
TIAJHA: I want to clarify, that it’s never this films intent to shed a negative light on the gaming industry, nor are we saying that this doesn’t happen to men either. We are sharing a fictional story about one character, and that doesn’t blanket define everyone who plays games. However, I do have to say that there is a difference in that women don’t even feel safe enough to share their gender, whereas men can still be themselves without causing more attention or repercussion. Women aren’t encouraged or pushed into the pipeline. How can we motivate more women to persevere through an exclusive industry?
What are you looking to achieve by having your film more visible on www.wearemovingstories.com?
SEARIT: We hope we can reach out to more women who game so they can keep on playing!
TIAJHA: And not just to play too, if you’re interested in pursuing a career in the gaming industry, we hope you keep persevering and fight the stigma that the gaming industry is only geared towards men. It’s a chicken and an egg issue, and the more women that are visible in the industry, the more it’ll encourage other women to be vocal.
Who do you need to come on board (producers, sales agents, buyers, distributors, film festival directors, journalists) to amplify this film’s message?
SEARIT: We are currently in the middle of submitting our film to film festivals. We would love to have support from film festival directors to have our film be shown in their short’s program. We are also looking for a publicist/social media manager to help us promote the film, as well as any journalists that would like to share and spread the story.
What type of impact and/or reception would you like this film to have?
SEARIT: I hope WOC and LGBTQ+ will inspire to play more! I also hope we keep the conversations going and continue to push for more diversity in the gaming community.
KELLEY: I hope to broaden what it means to be a gamer. It comes in all different shapes and sizes and colors and who’s to say that gaming looks just one certain type of way. This chips away, even a little bit, at barriers and I hope to get more women of color playing games!
What’s a key question that will help spark a debate or begin a conversation about this film?
SEARIT: What type of gamer are you?
TIAJHA: What is a gamer? How can we encourage more diversity and a safe space in the gaming community?
Would you like to add anything else?
SEARIT: I would love to give a shout out to our gaming sponsor: Cooler Master! Our dream was to receive a sponsorship from a gaming computer company that would help sell the idea that Jamie is a serious gamer. We decided to give Cooler Master a cold call and I pitched the film over the phone. As nerve-wracking cold calling could be, Mychal Cohn and the Cooler Master team really loved the idea and were immediately supportive of our desire to bring diversity into filmmaking and the gaming industry. Mychal personally felt a deep connection with our characters and shared that his mother was a major Call of Duty fan and has gone through discrimination as a female gamer. He wanted to support our story for his mom and we thought that was really sweet!
What other projects are the key creatives developing or working on now?
SEARIT: We are currently working on our next short film, Foodie, and a music video. We are in the early stages of development and are currently doing grant research to fund both projects. If anyone has any grants or funding info to help us create these two projects, please let us know :)
Interview: April 2019
We Are Moving Stories embraces new voices in drama, documentary, animation, TV, web series, music video, women's films, LGBTQIA+, POC, First Nations, scifi, supernatural, horror, world cinema. If you have just made a film - we'd love to hear from you. Or if you know a filmmaker - can you recommend us? More info: Carmela
Gamers
An amateur female gamer is given a once in a lifetime opportunity to try out for a pro league gaming team, only to be repressed by self-doubt.
Length: 9:43
Director: Searit Huluf
Producer: Tiajha Nakahara
Writer: Searit Huluf
About the writer, director and producer:
SEARIT HULUF was born and raised in Los Angeles, CA. She studied at UCLA’s Theater, Film and Television school, concentrating in screenwriting and animation. After graduating, she moved to the Bay Area to work at Pixar Animation Studios, and now works there as a production coordinator. During her spare time, she watches endless hours of anime, is a major foodie and coffee addict, and enjoys solo traveling.
TIAJHA NAKAHARA was born and raised in Okinawa, Japan, and studied at UCLA for Design Media Arts and Film. She got a taste of video editing for the Creative Content team at Pixar Animation Studios and now proudly works as post-production coordinator at MasterClass. Her latest favorite pastime includes watching Netflix's Terrace House, drinking boba and coffee, and watching cute animal videos that her husband picks out for her.
Key cast: Destiny Ekwueme (Jamie), Andrea Guidry (Taylor)
Looking for: film festival directors, journalists
Facebook: Gamers
Twitter: @gamersshortfilm
Instagram: @gamersshortfilm
Hashtags used: #womenfilmmakers #film #pocfilms #gamers #gamersshortfilm #womeninfilm #lgbtq #filmfestivals #directors #poccrew #shortfilms #cinema
Website: gamersshortfilm.com
Other: IMDb
Where can I watch it next and in the coming month? Phoenix Film Festival/Arizona - April 6th, April 8th, and April 9th; National Black Film Festival/Texas - May 4th; Quirkcon/North Carolina - June 1st; LGBT Los Angeles Film Festival/California - August 1st