Come Around

This story explores themes of family, love, understanding and forgiveness. The biggest reason why I said yes to this script, is because I could relate to every one of those themes. As a director I draw from my own experiences to use and motivate the actors. I was immediately drawn to this script, due to it's excellent way of describing Bela and Gloria's struggle. Pointing out both perspectives, It allowed me to understand each character more, which helped with guiding the actors to stronger performances.

The most important aspect of the film is the relationship between Gloria and Bela. Natasha establishes from the beginning that it hit's Gloria the hardest. No matter how hard Bela tries and to please Gloria, it doesn't alter Gloria's mind. But things change when Bela makes it clear that she no longer wants to be in a household that doesn't love her for who she is. This is so important, as our opening scene when we see the photograph of the family - during a happier time - in contrast to how the family is sitting in silence at a dinner table, not interacting. As the story goes on, we see how Gloria struggles to accept Bela's lifestyle, and Bela struggles to get through to her mom. A tug of war situation that makes the ending very emotional. In the script, it was a very clear cut ending that the family would resume to their loving household, and that everything will be okay. But in the final cut of the film, It's unclear if Bela and her mom patch things up. We do see them reconcile, but we also see a moment where Bela is right back where she just started. This allows for the ending to be interpreted differently depending on the viewer. The fact that things are patched up between the mom and the daughter, is good - but sometimes it doesn't alway end up that way.

I knew from the beginning that music and sound design would really drive this film. I think the tender moments between each family member and Bela & Grace - are very special - and what better way to make us feel how emotional and poignant those scenes are, than with music? With our composer, we've chosen to go the route of piano keys with a mixture of strings to help accentuate the 'silent' moments.

No particular film inspired me on the look of this short film - I would argue that most of my inspiration came from how I read the script and how I saw it in my head. And then when we got to the editing room, the whole story's linear line was changed but it made it for a much stronger story that still told the same message.

I believe that everyone who watches this, and has grown up in an immigrant household, or has kept a secret like Bela's away from their parents, or has ever felt like they weren't feeling heard, in their own home - They could relate to this story. I think ultimately, this short film will exceed the expectations of everyone.