Experiencing Interruptions?

Raisin Bran Squish (CluckyFilm #01)

Like something from an Insta-hoe Jonas Mekas or Chris Marker, this mockumentary parodies coming-out narratives directed by cis people, examining the complicated relationship between understanding marginalization and privilege.

  • Charli Rogers
    Director
    Document (2015)
  • Charli Rogers
    Writer
  • Kaleigh Moynihan
    Producer
    Holy Trinity (2019)
  • Charli Rogers
    Key Cast
    "Squish"
    Third Time is Not the Charm (2015)
  • Kaleigh Mohnihan
    Key Cast
    "Herself (offscreen)"
  • Charli Rogers
    Music
    Composer
  • Project Type:
    Documentary, Experimental, Short, Student
  • Genres:
    Mockumentary, Queer cinema, New American Cinema, Essay film
  • Runtime:
    5 minutes 16 seconds
  • Completion Date:
    February 21, 2019
  • Production Budget:
    0 USD
  • Country of Origin:
    United States
  • Country of Filming:
    United States
  • Language:
    English
  • Shooting Format:
    iPhone
  • Aspect Ratio:
    16:9
  • Film Color:
    Color
  • First-time Filmmaker:
    Yes
  • Student Project:
    Yes
Director Biography - Charli Rogers

An autistic trans woman from Chicago who is as creatively influenced by Michael Snow and Frederick Wiseman as she is by the LEGO Movie and Buster Keaton, Charli has friends who continually prod her to "share her truth" as an Instagram influencer or something, but she feels like she could do so much more with her footage by making essay films out them, some even without any narration.

She started making feature-length documentaries in album form around 2014 with a series about the alt-right family she was eventually estranged from, and starting her "filmmaking" career in audio gives her a connection to rhythm that we too often forget is an enormous part of the silent films she idolizes.

On Friday evenings you could always find her at the Siskel Film Center, ranting to her friend Carl about how movies aren't going downhill at all.

Add Director Biography
Director Statement

The first set of movies I'm adding to this page, the feature-length "Squish Trilogy" of shorts, has a seemingly vapid conceit: Documenting the evolution of my "curvy prosthetics" that help me pass as feminine without access to hormones. But not only does this let me subvert all the porn that I used growing up to feed my desire to live life as the woman I am today and throw in all the tricks I've learned from Chris Marker and late-period Godard, but it also lets me examine identity in a much more wonderfully messy way than, say, Todd Haynes was able to get away with as a narrative director.

The first short in the trilogy, Raisin Bran Squish, is all about understanding where you are when you realize you're as privileged as you are marginalized, and mostly works as an unreliable narrator speaking on herself; in the second short, CookieRill, the narration is replaced by her processing her social experiences with other queers through her own documentary filmmaking, and the messiness using other people's voices to speak for your own; and the part of the trilogy, tentatively called Charli, is mostly narrated by other voices, as you see the limits to taking a backseat in your identity.