QUESTION#1: How do your top 3 favorite films influence your filmmaking?: 

I love Harold and Maude not only for its unique humor but also as a story of how light and dark are intertwined in the human experience and how deep love - both of another and of yourself - carries with it an element of deep sacrifice. The contrasts of psychological lightness and darkness color the story of our film as well. A recent film that has fast become one of my favorites, Everything, Everywhere, All at Once, is amazing on a million levels, but as it relates to The Hope Chest Has a Secret Drawer, I love how it centers women over 50 as powerful, layered, interesting, and most of all, relevant. We have so many stories to tell! My third film - well, any list of mine always includes The Empire Strikes Back just because it is a happy place for me!

QUESTION#2: What do you wish someone would ask you about your film and why?: 

Not so much a question, but I would love to have a discussion with audiences about the truths about ourselves that we bury and hide away, and how terrifying it would be to have your own mind betray your own confidence. As parents, to protect our children, we often shield them from ugly truths. But as adult children, what secrets have our parents - especially our mothers, had to carry in silence? Do we always want to know

QUESTION#3: What scared you the most about making this film?: 

I think just wondering how it would be received by audiences - it can be experienced on a spectrum of light to dark - would they go to the darkest place with us?

QUESTION#4: You have to choose one to make your next movie: 1) unlimited budget but only a single take of every shot 2) Academy award winning composer, but they're not allowed to watch the film 3) A-list cast, but they're directed using only charades. Which one do you pick and why?: 

Easy: A-list cast, but they're directed using only charades. Doesn’t matter how brilliant the actors are if a technical mistake ruins the shot. And there are many amazingly talented composers who have never won an Academy Award. Also - I’m fairly good at charades.

QUESTION#5: What's does the future hold for this film and you?: 

We are excited to continue to share this film with audiences as we work on our next short!

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