Experiencing Interruptions?

SNAPSHOT

A freelance photographer and woman about town, Charlie has her sights set on Danny, an older butch in search of adventure and romance. Just as things are about to click, Charlie accidentally snaps a photo of a murderer and becomes his new target. With a killer hot on her trail — and a new relationship developing — will Charlie find love… or her own demise?

Written and directed by Shine Louise Houston (The Crash Pad, Champion: Love Hurts), SNAPSHOT draws inspiration from film classics such as Hitchcock’s Rear Window and Antonioni’s Blow Up, featuring a diverse cast and intimate portrayals of queer sex in Houston’s signature cinematic style.

  • Shine Louise Houston
    Director
    The Crash Pad, CHAMPION
  • Shine Louise Houston
    Writer
    CHAMPION, Put the Needle on the Record
  • Beretta James
    Key Cast
  • Chocolate Chip
    Key Cast
  • Project Type:
    Feature
  • Genres:
    Romance, Thriller, LGBT, Adult
  • Runtime:
    1 hour 5 minutes
  • Completion Date:
    February 18, 2017
  • Production Budget:
    40,000 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:
    No
  • Student Project:
    No
  • Cinekink NYC
    New York
    United States
    March 18, 2017
    North American Premiere
    Audience Choice Award: "Best Narrative Feature"
  • British Film Institute Flare LGBT Film Festival
    London
    United Kingdom
    March 24, 2017
    European Premiere
  • Toronto International Porn Festival
    Toronto
    Canada
    Canadian Premiere
    Movie of the Year
  • Hacker Porn Film Festival
    Rome
    Italy
    Italian Premiere
  • Queer Women of Color Film Festival
    San Francisco
    United States
    San Francisco Premiere
  • Wonderlust Festival
    Helsinki
    Finland
    Finland Premiere
  • Duckies Family
    London
    United Kingdom
  • FRAMELINE41 San Francisco International LGBTQ Film Festival
    San Francisco
    United States
  • Women Make Waves Film Festival
    Taipei
    Taiwan
    Asian Premiere
  • Fresno's Reel Pride Gay and Lesbian Film Festival
    Fresno
    United States
  • TWIST Seattle Queer Film Festival
    Seattle
    United States
    Seattle Premiere
Director Biography - Shine Louise Houston

As a graduate from San Francisco Arts Institute with a Bachelors in Fine Art Film, Shine Louise Houston has always had unique vision. Her signature cinematic style is best known for its honest and charismatic depictions of queer desire. In 2015, she received San Francisco´s Harvey Milk "Sylvester Pride in the Arts" Award for her work´s portrayal of healthy, diverse sexuality, and most notably seen in CrashPadSeries.com and its cast of queer and trans performers, people of color, and varying bodies and abilities. For over a decade, her films have screened across the world, spanning Frameline and Outfest to Wonderlust Helsinki (awarded by the Finnish association for Sexology) and the Tate Modern London, as well as popular media including HBO and Amazon's Emmy Award-winning TV series Transparent, and have also been presented at academic institutions such as Princeton University and the American Studies Association Conference. Inspired by new producers she met at Berlin PornFilmFestival, she launched PinkLabel.tv to support emerging and independent filmmakers like herself. Shine considers her best art project to be that of creating Pink & White Productions, a sustainable business that enables the creative vision of many filmmakers to come.

Add Director Biography
Director Statement

Coming out stories are huge in queer communities, and they play an important role in making sense of what we’ve been through and in helping pave the way for others. Growing up queer, I was always frustrated with the coming out stories I was hearing and seeing: there were so few queers of color, the representations’ idea of ‘sexy’ wasn’t mine, narratives were formulaic and stereotypical, and the production quality left a lot to be desired. SNAPSHOT is an attempt to provide a different coming out narrative in a tone that reflects some of my most profound filmic influences. It involves two women of color as its main characters, the character whose coming out is in focus is in her late 30s and her coming out has to do more with the intricacies of new desires than with gender.

The story is set in San Francisco, where our young lead, Charlie, discovers that she may have accidentally photographed a murderer. Her pursuit of the mysterious figure in her photo causes her to meet Danny, an older Butch, setting into motion an odd romance. Though it may sound like a murder mystery, SNAPSHOT is really a coming out story — but not the kind you’d think. The traditional narrative usually involves a younger protagonist coming into maturity or sexual revelation, however it is our older character, Danny, who embraces a new way of being as a result of meeting Charlie and being exposed to her unfamiliar desires.

Stylistically, the murder serves as a catalyst for their relationship, symbolic of their triumphs over fears of intimacy. Structurally, the mystery is a MacGuffin: it serves as a catalyst for Danny and Charlie’s relationship which unfolds in unexpected ways over the course of the film. SNAPSHOT is an erotic suspense thriller that draws inspiration from film classics such as Hitchcock’s Rear Window and Antonioni’s Blow Up.