Late

Just before I started writing LATE, I was looking for a contained story that explored the inner world of a character who feels lost and at a crossroads in life. That was how I felt at the time and when a friend of mine unexpectedly got pregnant it got me thinking a lot about family, parenthood and all the pressure that comes with that. What also stood out to me from our conversations was the uncertainty and stigma around the subject.

We coast through life and every now and then these big moments come out of nowhere and you have to make a choice and everything changes. It made me wonder what I would do in that situation. And what about people even younger than me who are just barely out of childhood themselves? How do they deal with that on top of everything else that comes with growing up?

At first I was apprehensive about the subject matter but ideas and visuals kept coming to mind. I grew up in a single-parent family with strong female characters around me all the time so the dynamics of a family of women were familiar and interesting to me. What wasn’t and never will be familiar is the experience of being pregnant so the big challenge was trying to make sure I made something that felt honest and genuine in spite of that. And while on the surface “Late” is about a teenage pregnancy, it is really about Maya and her experience as a young person moving through this chaotic world and trying her best to hold it all together.

The pregnancy is never explicitly shown or talked about in the film, only inferred, to reflect the taboo nature of the subject matter and the stifled conversation around it. We committed to a stripped back approach to avoid being didactic and instead make a film about Maya’s world and what she is going through with a sensibility that hopefully makes the audience lean in and feel that too.