Experiencing Interruptions?

Small Packages

Mama pulls out all the stops to save her daughter’s favorite toy that has fallen into a Florida canal. But when her own prized possession from her late mother breaks, she must show her daughter how to let go and move on.

  • Jenny Lester
    Director
  • Vaishnavi Sharma
    Writer
  • Ronald Baez
    Producer
  • Vaishnavi Sharma
    Producer
  • Vaishnavi Sharma
    Key Cast
    "Mama"
    Mr Robot, High Maintenance, The Leftovers
  • Project Type:
    Short
  • Runtime:
    12 minutes 12 seconds
  • Completion Date:
    April 20, 2023
  • Production Budget:
    20,000 USD
  • Country of Origin:
    United States
  • Country of Filming:
    United States
  • Language:
    English, Hindi
  • Shooting Format:
    Digital
  • Aspect Ratio:
    16:9
  • Film Color:
    Color
  • First-time Filmmaker:
    Yes
  • Student Project:
    No
  • Soho International Film Festival
    New York City
    United States
    World Premier
    Official Selection
  • Fort Lauderdale International Film Festival
    Ft Lauderdale
    United States
    Florida Premier
    Official Selection
  • Topaz Film Festival
    Dallas, Texas
    United States
    Official Selection
Director Biography - Jenny Lester

JENNY LESTER is a director, actress, writer, and the co-founder of Shallow Graves Productions. In 2019, she produced, wrote, and starred in the feature film What She Said, available wherever you can rent movies. In addition to creating her own work, Jenny has assisted across the industry in a variety of roles; including writer's assistant to Steven Sater (Broadway's Spring Awakening), Literary Manager for BEDLAM, and Festival Coordinator for the Lower East Side Film Festival. Directing credits include: Our Bodies and Other Shames (upcoming - Sundance Feature Lab Screenplay Finalist), Picasso at the Lapine Agile (Pittsburgh Playhouse), Ten Days (Alexis Scheer/IRT Theatre) Small Packages (WEG/Little Egg Studios), The Great Lesbian Love of Eve Adams (Irondale On Women Festival) Close Talkers (Alto Entertainment), & Kate Hamill’s Sense & Sensibility (Pittsburgh Playhouse). Selected acting credits include: Bad Jews (Best Actress Tampa Bay 2018), "The Other Two" (HBO), "Soon By You", Tahara (w/ Rachel Sennot), and the upcoming feature The Village People (Shallow Graves). Read more at www.jennyluisalester.com.

Writer/Producer Biography
Vaishnavi was born and raised in New Delhi, India and moved to New York City in 2005. She played the recurring role of Magda Anderson on the multi-award winning TV show, Mr Robot. She was awarded the prestigious Elliot Norton Award for her portrayal of Eliza Doolittle as an Indian woman from the streets of New Delhi in George Bernard Shaw’s Pygmalion.
She has had extensive writing experience on immersive and devised theater productions in New York City. Her screenplay, Small Packages, was a finalist at the Miami Screenplay Awards.
The film is co-produced by Miami based film collective, WEG, and includes an original song by famed Indian musician Ankur Tewari. Vaishnavi has an MFA from The New School for Drama in New York City. She currently resides in Ft Lauderdale, Florida.

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Director Statement

Writer's Statement
My first memory is a sound - My mother's gold bangles jingling on her arm as she rounded a corner, down a flight of stairs. I remember the old silver trunk I was sitting on, the look of delighted surprise on her face when she saw me gazing up at her, the big red bindi on her forehead. They say it's unlikely that I would remember something from when I was less than a year old. It is possible that I filled in the visual details over the years to complete an image that I'd like to hold on to. I must have seen that silver trunk somewhere, and maybe I transposed her face into this memory from a photograph of her when she was young. But the sound of those bangles, I know that's real.
We carry the memories of our mothers, from our first breath, in our deepest beings. We are made from pieces of them and we pass these pieces on, unwittingly, to our children and theirs.
This is a story about that invisible thread that connects mother to daughter to mother and on and on.