Living for Others

After a bizarre nightmare, a woman goes on a walk and meets a stranger with an eerily similar experience.

  • Simone Hile-Bassett
    Director
  • Simone Hile-Bassett
    Writer
  • Simone Hile-Bassett
    Producer
  • Jen Rea
    Key Cast
    "Marcie"
  • Sydney Scholl
    Key Cast
    "Stella"
  • Corbin Baldwin
    Key Cast
    "Jesse"
  • Simone Hile-Bassett
    Editor
  • Joey Conway
    Audio Recording and Sound Design
  • Simone Hile-Bassett
    Director of Photography
  • Project Type:
    Short
  • Runtime:
    14 minutes 56 seconds
  • Completion Date:
    February 14, 2023
  • Production Budget:
    0 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:
    Yes
  • Student Project:
    No
  • The Cut Film Series
    Canton, Ohio
    United States
    June 24, 2023
    World Premiere
Director Biography - Simone Hile-Bassett

Simone Bassett is an American writer and director from Bloomington, Indiana. Drawing from her experience as a trans and two-spirit individual, her work is heavily inspired by neorealist/magic-realist writers and storytellers, often emphasizing the surreal nature of life as a marginalized identity.

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Director Statement

Written partially as a means of coping with the loss of a friend in October 2021, Living for Others rose as a way to express this feeling of a life being snuffed out before its time, and for the fellow grievers in the cast and crew & I to imagine a world where it could have played out differently.

Influenced by the atmospheric driftings of Taiwanese auteurs Edward Yang and Tsai Ming-liang and the domestic strife portrayed by American Independents Kathleen Collins and Billy Woodberry, the film takes inspiration from a sequence in the novel Tracks by Louise Erdrich, wherein the heroine gets up from her deathbed and walks deep into the woods to find her ancestors playing poker.

We used the Bloomington B-Line trail as the backdrop for this journey, suffused with a surreal and eerie atmosphere of quiet, trying to answer the question:

Do any of us live for ourselves? Or do we live for others?