Experiencing Interruptions?
Password

TAMPONS

The age old ritual of using a tampon for the first time paves the way to healing for a pair of grieving sisters.

  • Kennisa Ragland
    Director
  • Kennisa Ragland
    Writer
  • Bobby Burns
    Producer
  • Amanda Lee
    Key Cast
    "Amaya"
  • Cayla Jackson
    Key Cast
    "Alysia"
  • Bobby Burns
    Producer
  • M. Ceren Arslan
    Director of Photography
  • Sierra Smith
    Production Designer
  • Project Type:
    Short
  • Runtime:
    3 minutes 30 seconds
  • Completion Date:
    December 11, 2020
  • Country of Origin:
    United States
  • Country of Filming:
    United States
  • Language:
    English
  • Shooting Format:
    RED
  • Aspect Ratio:
    2.39.1
  • Film Color:
    Color
  • First-time Filmmaker:
    Yes
  • Student Project:
    Yes
Director Biography - Kennisa Ragland

Kennisa Ragland was born and raised around the Metro-Atlanta area of Georgia. During her time in Queens, NY, studying Sociology and English at St. John’s University, the themes that would dominate her stories were forged, including revealing truths about the conditions of society and its affects on the individual, what exactly it means to be human and how being a part of the fabric of smaller communities and the larger universe affects one’s life. She is currently pursuing an MFA in Production at the Florida State University’s College of Motion Picture Arts. The program has solidified her admiration for and yearning to be a part of the film-making process in its entirety, from pre-production, throughout production and into post-production. Outside of hopes of flourishing in the industry, she aspires to try her hand in a number of other mediums including songwriting and poetry.

Add Director Biography
Director Statement

Most of the stories I tell are fuller explorations of recent ruminations. When developing TAMPONS, a couple ideas had been pressing on my mind.
The first being, that women are seen nude and sex is sold and talked about, especially through on-screen stories, all the time. In my limited but extended library of films and television I've seen, there's been an abundance of nudity and sex. Both are very real parts of reality and that fact is a good enough argument for me for their rightful presence on the screen (when done right, which is a whole other discussion). However, what's always been lacking, again at least in my limited viewership, is a girl or menstruating young person going through the very real process of inserting a tampon for the first time. That realization and the memory of my own experience attempting to use a tampon for the first time worked its way into this story from the onset.
The second idea on my mind when trying to flush out this story was inspired by my never-ending musings on grief and memory. When we lose someone to death, we lose their bodily presence but they live on through us. With the narrative of using a tampon for the first time in hand, a possible connection between these two ideas came very easily to me, and, as it does most times, in the form of a question: What happens when a daughter needs to use a tampon for the first time and she no longer has a mother to show her?
The story kind of wrote itself after that