Maintenance

Sometimes the realness of life sticks with you so deeply, that an art piece simply must be birthed.

I wrote the first draft of this short film in the summer of 2022, after graduating college and spending my third and final summer working in landscaping -- an effort to save some money before moving away from home and beginning life on my own.

In my three grueling summers filled with dirt-digging, weed-eating, sweat and sunburns, I ended up spending a great deal of time with who would become two of the most interesting men I have ever met. My coworkers were quintessential blue-collar types. Vulgar, hard-headed chainsmokers who are some of the hardest working people I've had the pleasure to know. I had apprehensions about them at first -- but they slowly grew on me. Their odd relationship that so easily danced between locker room humor & deep conversations fascinated me. It eventually became clear to me that these two men possessed a deep, unspoken friendship that was essential to their own individual frameworks & personal growth.

So, one day, in the heat of my third summer spent with these two men, I bore witness to a conversation that stuck with me so deeply that I had to put it to the page. The words spoken, the stories shared, and the quietness of it all ring true to the portrayal in the film.

My ultimate hope for this project is that it speaks to the shared struggle of being human, and passes the thought that we can all stand to lean on each other, and find a little connection in our innate humanness. I hope it will find a life on the screen, but ultimately I just hope it finds a home in the hearts of those who watch.