Downwind

Millie is an obsessive kid with one goal: to make a paper airplane fly. But when Mom catches Millie using documents she wouldn't understand as jet fuel, Mom forbids her from ever making another one. As the distance between the two grows larger, Millie moves ever closer to making her dreams come true.

  • Nathan Rivers
    Director
  • Nathan Rivers
    Writer
  • Chris Retei
    Producer
  • Oneida Rivers
    Key Cast
    "Millie"
  • Laura Burns
    Key Cast
    "Mom"
  • Logan Pinckney
    Assistant Director
  • Christina Fu
    Production Designer
  • Fabiola Dominguez Gonzalez
    On-Set Sound
  • Thu Kha Win
    1st AC
  • Jose Ruben Hernandez
    Gaffer
  • Ethan Jeffery
    Grip
  • Chris Retei
    Editor
  • Project Type:
    Short, Student
  • Genres:
    Drama, Comedy, Fantasy
  • Runtime:
    7 minutes 13 seconds
  • Country of Origin:
    Canada
  • Country of Filming:
    Canada
  • Language:
    English
  • Shooting Format:
    Digital
  • Aspect Ratio:
    2.39:1
  • Film Color:
    Color
  • First-time Filmmaker:
    No
  • Student Project:
    Yes - InFocus Film School
Director Biography - Nathan Rivers

Nathan Rivers is an emerging film director currently based in Vancouver, Canada.

As a lifelong fan of film, Nathan has immersed himself in the filmmaking process as soon as he got his first camcorder.

This love of the process fueled Nathan's interest in storytelling, fostering a strive to tell meaningful, empathetic stories.

Recently, Nathan graduated InFocus Film School with a diploma in film production, and is excited to tell new and unique stories for all to enjoy.

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Director Statement

Going into Downwind, I really wanted this to be my huge, unmitigated student film success story. I wanted to make a movie the 'proper way,' like the way we'd been taught throughout the year. I wanted to find a perfect child actor, the most pristine filming locations - I wanted to make the best student film I could.
Call it fate, chance, or necessity, but the film gods had different plans. That strive to make a perfect student film slowly turned into simply telling this story the best way we could. I shifted focus from comparing it to other works, to just making the movie as personal to me as possible.
By making it personal, we took off.
It was only when we embraced our limitations that the story started to soar. It was never in the playbook to film it at my house, or cast my non-actor sister as the lead. It turned out the very thing I was running away from became our strongest asset, and one that you can feel permeating through every frame of this story.
Every single person involved with this project made the story their own, and I believe it shows. Much like what Millie and her Mom learn throughout the story, the best planes are the ones that we build together - and this was certainly a plane built by the most empathetic, compassionate, and hard working team a director could possibly ask for.