Sam & Quinn

While working in a community garden, a health scare forces two sisters to confront the rising tension and shifting dynamics in their relationship.

  • Kali Veach
    Director
  • Michelle Atwood
    Writer
  • Kali Veach
    Writer
  • Alexa Kasner
    Producer
  • Michelle Atwood
    Producer
  • Kali Veach
    Producer
  • Michelle Atwood
    Key Cast
    "Sam"
  • Nicole Doerges
    Key Cast
    "Quinn"
  • Project Type:
    Short
  • Runtime:
    11 minutes 48 seconds
  • Completion Date:
    March 28, 2025
  • Production Budget:
    5,300 USD
  • Country of Origin:
    United States
  • Country of Filming:
    United States, United States
  • Language:
    English
  • Shooting Format:
    DCI 4k Digital 4096 x 2160
  • Aspect Ratio:
    1.66:1
  • Film Color:
    Color
  • First-time Filmmaker:
    No
  • Student Project:
    Yes - University of California Riverside
Director Biography - Kali Veach

Kali Veach is a director originally from the Ozarks of Missouri.

She received her MFA from the University of California, Riverside where she was a chancellor’s distinguished fellow in screenwriting. Her directing work has been supported with grants and appointments by the Max H. Gluck Foundation, UC Riverside’s School of Arts and Humanities, The Long Beach Shakespeare Society, and others.

She is drawn to work that explores interpersonal relationships, mental health, sexuality, obsession, the bonds and limits of intimacy, and the varying ways human beings perceive and move through time.

She is currently in post-production on a micro-budget feature film shot for ten thousand dollars during the final year of her masters program.

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Director Statement

Sometime during the pandemic, just as people were returning to public spaces, I had a seizure on the Santa Monica pier.

I was there with a friend who, after a second seizure, called an ambulance. My initial reaction presented as anger and irritation–I didn’t want to get in an ambulance, I didn’t want to get poked with needles needlessly, I didn’t want to spend the next day waiting to get discharged from an ER–but, the latent emotion, the real motivator, was a deep fear. Fear of losing control of my body, fear of being perceived as weak or incapable, of embarrassment, of death.

Of course, I said none of this. While collecting my wits I argued with my friend and what was a growing crowd of tourists and security personnel that I did not in fact need an ambulance to drive down the Santa Monica pier and take me away. I walked off and my friend followed.

Ten minutes later, we were in a different movie, smoking a joint under the pier and then finding our way back to my car where we’d found free parking. The whole incident seemed funny.

I’ve been on the other end, too–not just of seizures (though yes, also seizures)–but of a loved one’s misplaced ego. Haven’t we all. At least, the ego part. Maybe not the seizure part. In “Sam & Quinn,” these themes and experiences are explored through sibling dynamics.

And then there’s the garden. A respite from the concrete mishmash that is Los Angeles. A world unto itself. In this world one feels a sense of connection with more primal forms of physicality: digging, gathering, pulling, pushing. Something about manual labor, particularly in green spaces, grounds us in our elemental instincts. Perhaps we are less filtered, more prone to connection.

While Michelle and I were first working on the script, I didn’t remember that incident on the pier. I didn’t even remember after the seizure found its way into the story, at least, not right away. But, there was something about working in the garden during development that subconsciously took me back to that moment.

Finally: the sprinklers. Life seems to progress in a series of cycles in which I realize I am taking myself and the moment a bit too seriously; I always appreciate the small, playful things that pull me back up to the present.

-KV
March, 2025