Egg

“If you laid an egg, would you keep it warm?” Noah asked me for absolutely no reason, breaking a comfortable silence as he drove uncomfortably through the Lower East Side. I don’t remember what I said. I assume “Yes.”

Whatever it was, it was quickly followed by a declaration: “I think that’s our next movie.” I knew Chris would want to shoot that. I knew Rebi would want to star in that. Swollen by a dry spell of story ideas, Noah dropped one right into my lap. A good one. A simple one. A day in the life of a human woman who has laid an egg.

Egg did not turn out to be a simple movie.

When we released the film to the public that Wednesday afternoon, I was receiving texts within the half hour from family and friends, each expressing their determined theories. Some wondered if it was all a dream, of course. Others wondered if the entire film was a metaphor for anxieties, for loneliness, for something as specific as false pregnancy tests. The people had no problem accepting that there was meaning, they just disagreed on how to identify it.

As a director, I feel it is my job to have two things set on any film: my vision and my purpose. The vision is for the audience. The purpose is for me. If there is no reason behind the shots, the sounds, the pacing of the performances- then it can get pretty frivolous. Although I normally prefer clear resolution in storytelling, not every film needs a message or even an overtly comprehensible ending. They just need a reason to exist.

And so long as I know full and well what my reasons are for this universe unfolding as it does, then we have succeeded in world-building, which is exactly what I love about making movies.

You can see Egg as some large statement about the surreality of creating life and the terrors of young motherhood. You can see Egg as just a movie about a woman who lays an egg. Our viewers each have their own interpretation of these eccentric and indulgent eight minutes. And I got mine.

I honestly did not expect the type of engagement I have been hearing about. I didn’t expect my friends and family to have questions and the theories. I didn’t even expect people to like it, if I’m being frank. But in this little movie based on a simple what-if, it seems that anyone can find a part of themselves in the lonely young woman who once laid an egg.