Filmmaker Statement

It is said that mushrooms were the first creatures to return to Hiroshima after the atomic bomb. They are symbols of decay, but also the new life that follows it. Like ghosts, mushrooms exist somewhere between life and death. To me, mushrooms represent something alien, something eerie and even disgusting, about the natural world. And yet. If we want to avert ecological disaster, humans must learn to live in harmony with nature. If we are to embrace the natural world, we must also embrace what we find frightening about it. Alice is someone who fears nature and, especially, the natural female body. She aspires to an impossible ideal: the perfect (photoshopped) femininity she sees in the media. But the more aggressively she deals with the mushrooms, the more stubborn they become. Like many women, Alice has been socialized to please people. She does not want to embrace her new body, which others might call monstrous. But Alice needs to learn to embrace her new form: to become a rotten woman.