Experiencing Interruptions?

Chemistry

As the audition tape continues to roll, a casting director and producer are caught candidly discussing the repercussions of casting a mixed-race actress.

  • Cynthia Silver
    Director
  • Charlotte Martin
    Writer
  • Camden Elizabeth
    Producer
  • Paul Marcarelli
    Producer
  • Cynthia Silver
    Producer
  • Charlotte Martin
    Key Cast
    "Naomi"
  • Meghan Rafferty
    Key Cast
    "Kirsten"
  • Jillian Oliver
    Key Cast
    "Reader"
  • Moira O'Sullivan
    Key Cast
    "Ashleigh"
  • Katie Honaker
    Key Cast
    "Casting Director (voice)"
  • Michael R. Piazza
    Key Cast
    "Producer (voice)"
  • Project Type:
    Short
  • Genres:
    Comedy, Drama
  • Runtime:
    4 minutes 10 seconds
  • Completion Date:
    December 20, 2018
  • Country of Origin:
    United States
  • Country of Filming:
    United States
  • Language:
    English
  • Shooting Format:
    RED
  • Aspect Ratio:
    1:89
  • Film Color:
    Color
  • First-time Filmmaker:
    No
  • Student Project:
    No
  • Big Apple Film Festival
    NYC
    February 6, 2019
    Official Selection
  • New York Shorts International Film Festival
    NYC
    June 5, 2019
    Official Selection
  • SAG-AFTRA New York Short Film Showcase
    NYC
    March 27, 2019
    Official Selection
  • USA Film Festival
    Dallas, TX
    Finalist, Short Film Competition
  • IndieWorks
    NYC
    July 30, 2019
    Official Selection
  • Jellyfest
    Los Angeles, CA
    Semi-Finalist
  • Berkshire Short Film Festival
    Pittsfield, MA
    September 28, 2019
    Official Selection/Finalist
  • RevolutionMe Film Festival
    NYC
    September 29, 2019
    Official Selection, Winner: Best Director of Experimental
  • LA Femme Film Festival
    Los Angeles, CA
    October 19, 2019
    Official Selection
  • Female Voices Rock Film Festival
    NYC
    October 24, 2019
    Official Selection, Winner: Made in NYC
  • Napa Valley Film Festival
    Napa, CA
    November 13, 2019
    Official Selection
Director Biography - Cynthia Silver

Cynthia Silver is an NYC-based stage & film director and acting teacher who was one of ten filmmakers selected to participate in the 2019 THROUGH HER LENS: The Tribeca CHANEL Women's Filmmaker Program.

Cynthia began her artistic career training at New York City’s Atlantic Acting School where she is now a faculty member and earned her BFA from NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts. Her filmmaking is a culmination of twenty-five years of acting, directing, and teaching. It is with former students and many longtime theatre colleagues that Cynthia made the award-winning shorts SLEEP TRAINING, SIBS, CHEMISTRY, and the short form series ADULT, all of which have screened at a wide range of festivals throughout North America.

Cynthia’s most recent short film, THE SHALLOW END, written by acclaimed playwright Wendy MacLeod and based on her one-act play of the same title, was an Official Selection at the 2019 Adirondack Film Festival, Indie Memphis Film Festival, the recipient of the Silver Whiskers Award at IndieWorks NY, and will continue its festival run in 2020. She is currently in development for MELISSA, her second collaboration with writer and lead actor of CHEMISTRY, Charlotte Martin.

Originally from the San Francisco Bay Area, Cynthia lives in Manhattan with her husband Matt and their daughter Sadie.

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Director Statement

I made this film in the interest of allyship. I therefore yield my Director's Statement to Charlotte Martin, writer & lead actor of Chemistry:

There is so much screaming. So much screaming about every little thing, every little comment and word choice and Instagram like. Everyone is the police of everyone else and everyone is rioting. There’s nothing wrong with that. We’re in a time when we need to be screaming. We need to be critical and we need to reject the sum of all the little choices that got us in this mess.

There is screaming because there is collision. Collision between the historically ignored and the historically insidious and when they collide they make a sound. The sound is not the screaming. The sound is quiet. You have to be sit up and lean forward and hush to hear it. There is screaming because there are people who don’t want you to hear the quiet collision in a story like this.

I wrote Chemistry to be a quiet movie because there is too much screaming, and I’m not trying to scream over everyone else. I wanted to tell the truth about what it feels like to be in the room where it happens and be ignored. This is what it feels like to know without a doubt that the odds are against you. This is the sound of being oppressed colliding with the invisible oppressor.

I’ve caught some criticism for “allowing” a white person to direct this film instead of an Asian person. To that criticism I would say that it was never my agenda to tell a story that condemns white people for being white or suggests that we need a wholesale repeal of white culture to be replaced with Asian or broadly non-white culture. No. What we need is cooperation. Coexistence. We need someone in the room whose white skin crawls when they see the fruits of their ancestors’ unjust labor in action. We need people whose white hands no longer take and take and take but come to us beseechingly: white palms up, asking “What has been kept from you? What can I give you? What can I give back?”

I gave this story truth. Cynthia gave it space and form. You give it life by watching our film.

Charlotte Martin
Madison, Wisconsin
March, 2019