YOUNG CLAUDE

While visiting their hometown grocery store, Claude is catapulted back to a pivotal childhood trip to that same market with their larger-than-life Dad. Memory knits the past to the present as Young Claude discovers that their hero is also human.

  • Adithi Chandrashekar
    Director
  • Jerre Dye
    Director
  • Adithi Chandrashekar
    Writer
  • Adithi Chandrashekar
    Producer
  • Jordan Graves
    Producer
  • Lilly Wachowski
    Producer
    Matrix, Matrix Reloaded, Bound, Cloud Atlas, Work in Progress, Sense8
  • Kelli Simpkins
    Key Cast
    "Adult Claude and Lee"
    A League of Their Own, Chasing Amy, Slice
  • Sloan Gregory
    Key Cast
    "Young Claude"
    The Truth About Kindergarten, Hush Money
  • Karen Rodriguez
    Key Cast
    "Angie"
    Shining Girls, The Big Leap, Swarm
  • Michael Turrentine
    Key Cast
    "Check Out Clerk"
    Somebody Somewhere, South Side
  • Scott Duff
    Key Cast
    "Clown"
    Chicago, P.D., Scrooge & Marley
  • Project Type:
    Short
  • Runtime:
    13 minutes 10 seconds
  • Completion Date:
    November 30, 2023
  • Production Budget:
    65,000 USD
  • Country of Origin:
    United States
  • Country of Filming:
    United States
  • Language:
    English
  • Shooting Format:
    Digital
  • Aspect Ratio:
    1.85
  • Film Color:
    Color
  • First-time Filmmaker:
    Yes
  • Student Project:
    No
Director Biography - Adithi Chandrashekar, Jerre Dye

Adithi Chandrashekar (she/her)—Writer/Co-Director/Producer. Adithi is a director, writer, and actor from Chicago, IL. She worked as a Writers Room Assistant on Showtime's “Let the Right One In” and is a graduate of Indiana University’s McKinney School of Law. Adithi is currently a Screenwriting and Playwriting Fellow at the University of Texas at Austin’s Michener Center for Writers.

Jerre Dye (he/him)—Co-Director/Co-Producer. Jerre is a director, opera librettist, playwright and actor. He has spent the last three decades focusing on the development of new works for both theater and opera. Jerre is the recipient of the Award for Dramatic Literature from the Fellowship of Southern Writers.

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Director Statement

YOUNG CLAUDE is a story about the complicated and adoring relationship between a dad and his child, and the complex nature of grief.

Our goal with the film was to capture both the joy and heartache of childhood memory. We were curious about the bits of our childhood experience that survive adulthood and reveal themselves throughout the storm of grief—the details, the colors, the shapes, forms, places and sensations.

The grocery store served as a perfect backdrop for the nostalgic and the familiar, an ever-present fixture in American life that has the power to transport us back through time with its smells, its labels, and its everyday wonders around every corner. The store, costume, and color supported our shift between the past and the present.

This story is about the discovery of one's own sense of self. It's a reminder that as queer people, we have what it takes to right ourselves when fear and loss crop up. But at its core, YOUNG CLAUDE is a love story—one between a kid and their dad, just as life's many complexities get in the way.