Experiencing Interruptions?

Guardian Angel

With her sanity threatened by the shadows of her past, Mila must make a difficult decision or lose the woman she loves forever.

  • Eileen Slavin
    Director
  • Eileen Slavin
    Writer
  • Eileen Slavin
    Producer
  • Kody Fraser
    Producer
  • Melanie DiStefano
    Key Cast
  • Maureen Vlaco
    Key Cast
  • Stephanie Lynn
    Key Cast
  • Joshua Ducharme
    Key Cast
  • Eileen Slavin
    Editor
  • Joshua Ducharme
    Production Sound Mixer
  • Tim Burbank
    Cinematographer/DP
  • Amelia Votta
    Production Assistants
  • Darlene Boutsabouabane
    Production Assistants
  • William English
    Assistant Director
  • Mandi Grattan
    Script Supervisor
  • Mallory Fink
    Location Managers
  • Kody Fraser
    Location Managers
  • Chris Boylston
    Assistant Camera
  • Adam O'Brien
    Gaffer
  • Project Type:
    Short
  • Genres:
    Thriller, Drama, Lesbian, Women, Short
  • Runtime:
    7 minutes 24 seconds
  • Completion Date:
    January 24, 2016
  • Production Budget:
    500 USD
  • Country of Origin:
    United States
  • Language:
    English
  • Shooting Format:
    Digital
  • Aspect Ratio:
    16:9
  • Film Color:
    Color
  • First-time Filmmaker:
    No
  • Student Project:
    No
Director Biography - Eileen Slavin

Eileen Slavin is an editor with a Bachelor of Arts in Film Media from the University of Rhode Island. She has a great passion for visual storytelling and loves connecting with audiences on an emotional level. In addition to editing, Eileen has experience in photography, producing and directing, as well as television production and other miscellaneous crew positions.

Add Director Biography
Director Statement

At the time of writing Guardian Angel, I was going through several stressful life events which sought a creative outlet. A close friend was fighting mental illness, namely depression and psychological cutting. I had recently been through a bad relationship and was unsure whether I should, or could, trust again. And I had begun to notice a lack of representation of women in film.

Around the same time, I watched a TED Talk by Eleanor Longden about her personal struggles with schizophrenia, and was fascinated by an idea she had brought to the table: that voice-hearing is a completely normal coping mechanism for people who have endured unspeakable trauma that they have no way of dealing with.

So I created a short film with exclusively female characters, the way female characters should be: complex, believable, and relatable. The main character, Mila, is in a relatively new but serious relationship, and clearly has some emotional baggage. Because she is not secure in this relationship, she is visited by Violet, a stern motherly figure existing only in Mila’s mind, who insists that she is unsafe. The film focuses on Mila’s struggle for survival, wanting to trust Erin, her girlfriend, even though Violet, the more guarded part of her persona, insists otherwise.

I hope that Guardian Angel encourages communication in relationships, enhances public understanding of mental illness, and expresses solidarity with feminism in filmmaking.