Private Project

Stiletto

A sadistic client follows a young stripper home after work, only to find out she was more than he bargained for.

" I was absolutely white-knuckling it the whole time, had to pry my jaw open afterwards from clenching it so hard! Fantastic, fucking brutal, brilliant." -hyperreal film club

  • Maclaine Lowery
    Director
  • June Shaukat
    Director
  • Maclaine Lowery
    Writer
  • Maclaine Lowery
    Producer
  • June Shaukat
    Producer
  • Deanna Noriega
    Key Cast
    "Bella"
  • Peter Young
    Key Cast
    "Dress Shoes"
  • Hannah Ho
    Key Cast
    "The Woman"
  • Jason Reyes
    Key Cast
    "Skinny Bouncer "
  • Kaia Daniel
    Director of Photography
  • Omar Vizcarra
    Music
  • Yessmeen Moharram
    1st Assistant Director
  • Ben Hard
    Script Supervisor
  • Karla Armendariz
    1st Assistant Camera
  • Wesley Willgrubs
    1st Assistant Camera
  • Scotty Villhard
    2nd Assistant Camera
  • Brandon Porter
    Editor
  • Maclaine Lowery
    Editor
  • Maclaine Lowery
    Colorist
  • Cristina Pop
    Production Designer
  • Rohan Mirchandani
    Costume Designer
  • Julia Holstein
    Makeup Artist
  • Katherine Nelson
    Gaffer
  • Camryn Davis
    Production Assistant
  • Bella Marco
    Production Assistant
  • Cory Mason
    Production Assistant
  • Lydia Fortuna
    Production Sound Mixer
  • Evan Sherer
    Boom Operator
  • June Shaukat
    Sound Editor
  • Richard Hamilton
    Rerecording Sound Mixer
  • Hannah Dunning
    Still Photographer
  • Project Type:
    Short, Student
  • Runtime:
    11 minutes 39 seconds
  • Completion Date:
    May 12, 2021
  • Production Budget:
    2,000 USD
  • Country of Origin:
    United States
  • Country of Filming:
    United States
  • Language:
    English
  • Shooting Format:
    Digital
  • Aspect Ratio:
    1.90:1
  • Film Color:
    Color
  • First-time Filmmaker:
    No
  • Student Project:
    Yes - University of Texas at Austin
  • Slash and Bash Sci-Fi/Horror Film Festival
    Topeka, Kansas
    United States
    Finalist
  • Gorst Underground! An Exploitation Film and Punk Rock Festival
    Port Orchard, Washington
    United States
    Official Selection
  • Boobs and Blood International Film Festival
    Los Angeles, California
    United States
    Best Student Short
  • ATX Short Film Showcase
    Austin, Texas
    United States
    Official Selection
  • Austin After Dark Film Festival
    Austin, Texas
    United States
    October 26, 2021
    Best Horror Film Award Finalist
  • Hyperreal Film Club Presents
    Austin, Texas
    United States
  • ATX Short Film Showcase Best of the Year Film Festival
    Austin, TX
    United States
    Best Horror Film Finalist
  • Nightmares Film Festival
    Columbus, Ohio
    United States
    Best Lead Performance
  • San Francisco Sex Worker Film & Arts Festival
    San Francisco, California
    United States
    Official Selection
Director Biography - Maclaine Lowery, June Shaukat

Maclaine Lowery (she/they) is a movement artist, actor, and filmmaker based in New York City. Since graduating from UT Austin in 2021, Maclaine has produced, directed, edited, acted, danced, and designed for shorts, features, music videos, and herself. She is now in production for an experimental film series.

June Shaukat is radio-television-film/environmental biology graduate from UT, specializing in post-production. Her most recent film, "Female Dating Strategy," was recently accepted into the 2020 Austin Microfilm Festival and nominated for Best Dark Comedy!

Add Director Biography
Director Statement

Sex work is a world of duality. To be desired but stigmatized, emboldened yet victimized, glamourous and brutalized, is to endure amidst volatility. We live halfway in the spotlight as Venus, and halfway in the shadow as Medusa, because this profession can be gorgeous yet violent. To survive, we must play both parts, but the voyeur only looks one side in the eye.

Amongst the modern audience, victimization and its imminent threat in the sex work industry have no tolerance. Elect our cinema to rewrite mythical trauma; sanitize the gorgon out of comfort; replace her survival with a mythical peace; erase the symbol of her immeasurable strength because we don’t want to know how she earned it.

Nevertheless, the world of sex work remains indifferent.

Every day, they persist in controversial existence because they must. Should they hide their experiences that appear regressive against their will? Is it better to falsify the relationship between sex work and violence to preserve the safety of the cinema? Is it best for you that they exclude survival even though they need it?

STILETTO mercilessly answers no.

As a depiction of cathartic retribution, this film is about:
- duality given the freedom to unify
- survival rewarded the exhibition of justice

You’re invited to see what happens when we reject the exploitative gaze.