Private Project

Eat Hot Chip & Lie

After a woman gets manipulated into becoming a hot sauce influencer by her TikTok-obsessed frenemy, she must find a way to exact revenge before the spice kills her.

  • Anders Kapur
    Director
  • Alise Morales
    Key Cast
    "Pepper"
    The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel, Our Cartoon President, Tooning Out The News
  • Lizzy Kircher
    Key Cast
    "Bubbles"
    Invitation to a Bonfire (AMC)
  • Anders Kapur
    Writer
  • Blu DeTiger
    Musician
  • Project Type:
    Short
  • Genres:
    Comedy, drama, dark comedy
  • Runtime:
    14 minutes 51 seconds
  • Completion Date:
    September 30, 2024
  • Production Budget:
    10,000 USD
  • Country of Origin:
    United States
  • Country of Filming:
    United States
  • Language:
    English
  • Shooting Format:
    Digital
  • Aspect Ratio:
    DCI 4K 1.9:1
  • Film Color:
    Color
  • First-time Filmmaker:
    Yes
  • Student Project:
    No
  • Oceanside International Film Festival
    Oceanside, CA
    United States
    February 18, 2025
    Official Selection, Best Actress nominee, Best Supporting Actress nominee
  • Iron Mule Film Festival
    New York, NY
    United States
    January 6, 2025
    Official Selection, Audience Award winner
  • Reel 2 Real International Film Festival for Youth
    Vancouver, B.C.
    Canada
    April 17, 2025
    Canadian Premiere
    Official Selection
Director Biography - Anders Kapur

Anders Kapur is a filmmaker who lives in New York City. His short doc "A Vida Recomeça", about amputee skateboarder Felipe Nunes, was nominated for a Webby Award in 2019. He also served as an editor and creative producer on "The Cricket Kings of Queens", a 30 minute documentary that was an official selection at the Manhattan Film Festival and Breckenridge Film Festival and was featured by the BBC World Service. He most recently worked at Business Insider, where his work gained two Webby Award nominations and a NATJA Silver Award.

Add Director Biography
Director Statement

Even if you make a point of avoiding it, social media is inescapable. I begin every day by looking at Instagram. I wish I didn't! All of our brains are poisoned, and the fact that more people aren't making movies about that basic truth is what inspired me to make "Eat Hot Chip & Lie".

One requirement of effective social media is that all #content must be neatly packaged and easily consumed. But as someone who makes #content for a living, I know all too well that behind every 10-second post lurks a living breathing human who put it there. And poisoned brains or not, humans are still humans, and humans have drama. "Eat Hot Chip & Lie" is my attempt to peel back the veneer and show how the sausage is made.

It's always fascinated me how people are willing to degrade themselves on the internet for minimal rewards. I once got paid to drink Franzia out of a Pringles can for a Facebook video, so I know it first hand. Bubbles and Pepper are my id and ego, selling their souls for one more like and some ad money, wrestling with the desire to break free.

Like many low budget short films, "Eat Hot Chip & Lie" is an exercise in constraints: how can I write a satisfying narrative arc, limited to one or two locations, that I can self-produce without bankrupting myself? It was important to me to create strong images despite the budgetary constraints, so I took a cue from my extensive work experience in YouTube. There are people on that site making careers out of eating hot wings on camera! Spice reactions always play well, as does frenetic, graphics-heavy editing. Throw that all into the mix, along with some spicy human drama and a satisfying revenge plot, and boom, you've got a recipe for high Scoville fun.

This is my first attempt at a narrative film after a decade-long career making news videos and documentaries. Producing it was an exhausting and rewarding experience that I wouldn't trade for anything in the world. I'm super proud of my work pulling this project together, and of the work of all my wonderful crew and actors. I hope this movie rots your brain from the inside out, just like it did mine while I was making it.