Parting Out

The story of “Parting Out’ was inspired by the sudden loss of close friend to suicide. Her parting words included the hope that “one day you can remember me without pain.” This film is a testament of honor to that hope. The means and methods by which she left her life were not the summation of that life, and she asked us to view it that way. She was intelligent, funny, awkward, beautiful, and sometimes difficult. She left an impact on many who knew and loved her, including my co-producer and writer, Robert John Zenk. Working together, on and off since the late 1990s, Bobby and I have developed our friend’s story, including a feature-length version that was shopped, optioned, financed, and entered pre-production, but ultimately didn’t reach the camera. Recently, my son Wylie Soltes, a twenty-two-year-old filmmaker and actor, read a current revisitation of our script and championed me to get back into filmmaking with it. I could not have done this short without Wylie’s help and encouragement. Together, the three of us brought this small, personal story to life in the middle of an auto salvage yard. It's a story of acceptance. We all carry baggage, and we all crave someone to help us with the load. It’s true of life, and it’s true of filmmaking.