Who Raised You?
An unyielding attachment to the partner he lost in the AIDS crisis of 1980s New York propels a lonely gay man to connect with his estranged family.
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Dani GuzmanDirector
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Dani GuzmanWriter
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Dani GuzmanProducer
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Kiersten BallardProducer
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Nick SalemKey Cast"Robert"
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Lawrence M. MurphyKey Cast"Raul"
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Destiny Leilani BrownKey Cast"Belinda"
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Christopher SinghKey Cast"Julio"
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Gianna LorenKey Cast"Cecilia"
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Project Type:Short, Student
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Genres:Drama, Romance, Queer, LGBT
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Runtime:9 minutes 58 seconds
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Completion Date:September 5, 2024
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Production Budget:9,500 USD
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Country of Origin:United States
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Country of Filming:United States
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Language:English
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Shooting Format:Digital
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Aspect Ratio:1.66:1
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Film Color:Color
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First-time Filmmaker:No
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Student Project:Yes - New York University
Dani Guzman is a Queer Chicano Writer, Director, & Cinematographer from Orange County, California and NYU Tisch alumni who studied Film/TV Production & Psychology. He is currently based in the Bay Area, finalizing a feature screenplay and pursuing its development while working as a bartender in gay nightlife. At the heart of his current work is the exploration of Queer love and identity, especially its contradictions to oppressive social, sexual, and economic regimes. He finds influence in a variety of artistic mediums which excel in sensual world-building and catalyzing empathetic consciousness.
Who Raised You? abandons a proof-of-concept tradition of “elevator pitching” a feature, instead giving the audience a glimpse into a subtle yet climactic scene of its parent script. Created as my final thesis at NYU Tisch, I sought a humanistic, personal lens to do justice to the agony and ecstasy endured by lovers whose stories were affected by the AIDS epidemic. As a Queer Chicano, I have experience with the delicate act of concealing myself in “polite” spaces, aware of the repercussions of living in open opposition to the deeply-held prejudices of others. When the people you have to hide from are the same people meant to love and nurture you, it can damage you in ways that bleed into your interpersonal relationships and motivate you to separate from them entirely. In the era of sexual liberation beyond the Stonewall riots, the mass exodus of Queer people fleeing their hometowns to “gay ghettos” made the imminent arrival of AIDS all-the-more traumatic and personal. As people lost members of their newly-formed families, many had already severed connections to their once familiar homes. My fascination with the emotional journeys of our Queer community superseded any urge to dramatize the traumatic magnitude of the period, instead highlighting a single story of desire to represent infinite like it. Who Raised You? is a love story told posthumously, following a character whose commitment to feel his late lover’s presence once more brings him to the same family his partner ran away from.
Memory is invigorating, but it will never fully satiate. The permanence of love motivates my protagonist’s every action, because how can anyone be truly gone from our lives when they once made us feel so alive? Not only must he mourn Raul, but the family that could have been his “in-laws”, if they would ever accept their relationship as legitimate - a question left unanswered. The metaphor of blood relation versus “found family” is most visceral in the quiet moments of my film, where the tension lies in what could unfurl if the protagonist’s identity is discovered and rejected publicly. The connection that blossoms between him and his lover’s sister ties their grief in a way that could build the same empathy I hope is rendered in my audience.