Experiencing Interruptions?

SKIN

In a present day post-apocalypse where New York City has become a wasteland with a resting temperature of 140 degrees, Kai struggles to find an intimate connection using an online dating device which allows you to feel someone else’s touch.

  • Cyrus Gainer
    Director
  • Cyrus Gainer
    Writer
  • Faoileán Cosgrove
    Producer
    Leo, Away from Home, Vagababy
  • Chris Davis
    Producer
  • Aileen Jialing Wu
    Key Cast
    "Kai"
    Fede Alvarez' ALIEN Project
  • Dionne Robinson
    Key Cast
    "Mother"
  • Isabel Padilla
    Director of Photography
  • Project Type:
    Short
  • Genres:
    Sci-Fi, LGBTQ, horror
  • Runtime:
    10 minutes
  • Production Budget:
    5,000 USD
  • Country of Filming:
    United States
  • Language:
    English
  • Shooting Format:
    Digital
  • Film Color:
    Color
  • First-time Filmmaker:
    No
  • Student Project:
    Yes - New York University
Director Biography - Cyrus Gainer

As a black, queer filmmaker and designer, Cyrus is drawn to creating work that is transgressive, provocative and deeply emotional.

Beginning their artistic career as an actor, Cyrus has always been surrounded by the arts and storytelling. Five years ago they moved to New York to study Drama and Film at NYU Tisch School of the Arts where their desire to tell deeper abrasive queer stories brought them to directing.

At NYU they directed their first three student films,”Pipe Dreams,” a dark aspirational horror short about the limits of a failed dancer, “Infatuation” an experimental dance film about the cycles of romance and “Hotline” a visceral depiction of living with depression. During 2020 in quarantine, they worked with The Warehouse Collective directing an anthology trilogy of Shakespearn texts in abstracted locations. In 2022 they directed “Capsized,” a grungy fairytale fashion film for the musician Miiv, shot by Isabel Padilla. Their debut film “SKIN,” is a queer sci-fi post-apocalyptic short that investigates intimacy in isolation, which was created in collaboration with Bryce Dallas Howard’s Nine Muses Lab.

Design has always been important to their work by creating a dynamic visual pallet that furthers the themes of the stories they tell. In the past year they have had the opportunity to design for Rodney Chrome, Sabrina Song and The Wonder Years, and work in the art department for iD Magazine, Converse and Showtime.

Cyrus loves to explore essences of our humanity through exciting genres like sci-fi, horror and experimental filmmaking techniques. It's their goal as a director to tell surreal, diverse and queer stories which push and provoke audiences' perspectives.

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Director Statement

When creating this project I was living in New York City in one of the wildest social experiences of our lives. For me, Covid completely changed my college plans, stuck me in a room with my closest friends, and led to months of watching movies, talking about movies and making movies. I ended up having a sixty-thousand-dollar camera kit from a class that abruptly stopped in the spring, which meant I had the time, tools, and friends to do everything we could dream of.

One day at work I was given a “pink slip” from my boss when we were chatting about our favorite films. When he saw my interest in high drama, teenage angst, and queerness he was surprised I had not seen any Gregg Araki films. He quickly gave me a list of things to watch which included “Mysterious Skin,” “Nowhere” and “The Doom Generation.” This ironically simple list became so important to all of my friends during quarantine. This along with some other of my favorite films, “Climax,” “Requiem for a Dream '' and “Trainspotting,” ended up becoming the catalyst for my queer dystopic quest for love.

In the fall of 2020 my class schedule was reduced to one internship, The Nine Muses Lab run by Bryce Dallas Howard and Nia Long. The prompt was simple - make a film with five hundred dollars.
Because I had friends just as insane as me, a camera kit, and a lot of ideas - we were able to make my first real independent film. It propelled me into the indie filmmaking world and hopefully, it can also inspire others to dream and escape into a different world.

The project has evolved many times from its first iteration.
In the beginning, it was about this surrealist world where everything felt maximal and hot, and you were stuck struggling to feel something with anyone.
Now SKIN to me is a story about loneliness. Loneliness in queerness, loneliness within your own family, and our desire just to be held. It’s about a deep craving for intimacy in a world of isolation.

I hope you're able to feel the visceral fun, vulnerability, and the freedom we tried to capture in this film. Remember the close relationships you already have in your life and the new ones to come. Value them and hold onto them.