Filmmaker Statement

In my latest short film, “This Is For You”, I committed to casting two queer actors for the lead roles. While chemistry between two people can exist in film no matter who the actors are, there was an ease and trust the actors shared in their experience of being queer. They had a mutual understanding of what it means to have lived a life with that identity every day. Their chemistry blossomed throughout their scenes; not only in the intimate, explicit sex scenes, but in the tense and tender moments in which their characters found themselves lost with no way to say goodbye to each other. They share an epic kiss at the end of the film, one whose length I’ve more often seen reflected in the depiction of violence or sexual assault in queer cinema rather than in scenes of intimacy. A trend I would prefer to see reversed.