Filmmaker Statement

I read an article in The Atlantic a few years ago profiling a business in Japan that offered “friend-for-hire” services. These services seemed like a form of therapy, assisting those in need by filling in a void of physical companionship that they longed for. In some cases these arrangements would require heavy research, writing scripts, character backgrounds and development, costume styling, and rehearsals, a very similar process to the medium of filmmaking. This idea stuck with me. I loved imagining where the line between a transactional obligation and a natural intimacy would occur. I wondered how many sessions it would take for a true bond to form outside the synthesis. I also questioned the ethics of this service when brought into the public sphere where unsuspecting people would be conned into belief. I started people watching in shopping malls and food courts, daydreaming if relationships were real or arranged, preconceived copies of the real thing.