Experiencing Interruptions?

E N D G A M E

Chiara is once again in therapy after an accidental overdose that almost killed her. Her therapist, Thomas, cannot get her to talk except in the guise of playing chess - the game her father had taught her before he died. As they play and talk, they delve into Chiara's psychology and her discomfort with the chaos of life outside the neat rules of chess. They come to the root of Chiara's pain - her grief over losing her father when she was a child. Rather than ever properly mourning, Chiara absorbed her father's lessons about chess and applied them to life - she had to focus on growing up and taking care of herself alone. In never properly mourning, however, Chiara never learned how to cope with pain except to numb herself with painkillers. With Thomas's help, Chiara learns to parent her inner child and give her the love and space to just miss her father, in order to start to heal.

  • Jemina Garcia
    Director
  • Jemina Garcia
    Writer
  • Tianmi Zhang
    Producer
  • Fozhan Khamsehpour
    Key Cast
  • Jason Kientz
    Key Cast
  • Sabina Martin
    Key Cast
  • Samuel Code
    Key Cast
  • Project Type:
    Experimental, Short, Student, Other
  • Runtime:
    6 minutes
  • Completion Date:
    June 10, 2024
  • Production Budget:
    630 USD
  • Country of Origin:
    United States
  • Country of Filming:
    United States
  • Language:
    English
  • Shooting Format:
    Digital
  • Aspect Ratio:
    16:9
  • Film Color:
    Color
  • First-time Filmmaker:
    No
  • Student Project:
    Yes - University of Southern California
Director Biography - Jemina Garcia

Jemina Garcia is a multidisciplinary artist and experimental genre filmmaker from Manila, Philippines. She is a current MFA candidate at the USC School of Cinematic Arts, where she’s been trained to handle work within all production departments at the industry standard. Before that, she graduated from UCLA with degrees in English, political science, and film. She has over 5 years of experience telling stories with multimillion-dollar impact across industries — film, advertising, public relations, and journalism. Her work has been featured and awarded in festivals and contests before like Filmmatic Sci-Fi/Fantasy Awards, Campus Movie Fest, QFest Houston International LGBTQIA+ Festival, First-Time Filmmaker Liftoff Sessions, MoziMotion, and more. In her free time, she loves to write ambitious scripts, read and learn for self-improvement, and volunteer in exciting projects by her colleagues and mentors. She’s always happy to meet with likeminded people and discuss ways to pioneer new developments in the film industry.

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Director Statement

E N D G A M E is an experimental, tender psychological drama exploring the complicated grief yet love we can have for our childhoods and how that affects our lives years into adulthood. This USC MFA project is supported by a faculty panel of award-winning professors, to be submitted to festivals with departmental support.

This film is a very personal project for me. I really wanted to make something meaningful to people and to explore my creative instincts without playing it too safe, and I am so proud and satisfied to answer that desire with Endgame. Part of growing up and healing from the past is being able to love and parent the inner child within all of us in the ways they needed, which we had grown up learning to live without. We must confront the pain of those old wounds, because oftentimes, that pain shows us how we can finally start healing.