Filmmaker Statement

Heavy Petting explores the distinction and degeneration between loneliness and desolation through a bifurcated character study. Although longing is a natural feature of the human spirit, as someone who has descended into the aberrant solitude of mental illness, I know that it’s vital to develop an understanding of the difference between these two experiences, and how easily it is to slip from one to the other without support. Thi is a film for people who feel invisible or disposable, and have been driven to despair because of it. It is primarily for young adults, whose experiences of alienation are especially acute, and especially for queer folks who know the sting of fetishization better than most. It is particularly for bisexual identifying people, whose suffering often goes unnoticed or is dismissed entirely. I hope that this strange story will shock people out of complacency, and inspire empathy and intervention in the lives of folks yearning to have their pain acknowledged.