Experiencing Interruptions?

Affliction

Two coworkers contemplate the aftermath of an encounter.

  • Christina Raia
    Director
  • Kelsey Rauber
    Writer
  • Christina Raia
    Producer
  • Kelsey Rauber
    Producer
  • Peter Westervelt
    Cinematographer
  • Matt Gershowtiz
    Editor
  • Mike Dimitroulakos
    SFX Makeup
  • Nabil Vinas
    Key Cast
    "John"
  • Briana Swann
    Key Cast
    "Lisa"
  • Frank Huang
    Sound Design
  • Paul Robinson
    VFX
  • Shivanna Sooknanan
    Art Direction
  • Project Type:
    Short
  • Runtime:
    5 minutes 42 seconds
  • Completion Date:
    October 27, 2019
  • Country of Origin:
    United States
  • Country of Filming:
    United States
  • Language:
    English
  • Shooting Format:
    Digital 2K
  • Aspect Ratio:
    2:1
  • Film Color:
    Color
  • First-time Filmmaker:
    No
  • Student Project:
    No
  • Sidewalk Film Festival
    Leeds, Alabama
    August 25, 2020
  • Horrible Imaginings Film Festival
    Santa Ana, CA
    September 5, 2020
    Runner Up: Best Director (Short Film) & Best Dramatic Short
  • Queens World Film Festival
    Astoria, NY
    March 28, 2020
    World Premiere
  • Capital City Film Festival
    Lansing, MI
    April 11, 2020
  • Adirondack Film Festival
    Glens Falls, NY
    October 17, 2020
  • Revolution Me Film Festival
    Brooklyn, NY
    August 9, 2020
    Winner:Best Screenplay and Social Awareness Award
  • Fem.Cine.Anarchy
    Portland, Maine
    September 17, 2020
  • Imagine This Women's Film Festival
    Brooklyn, NY
    September 27, 2020
  • Indigo Moon Film Festival
    Fayetteville, NC
    October 10, 2020
  • Revenge Fest
    Chicago, Illinois
    October 30, 2020
Director Biography - Christina Raia

Christina Raia is a New York City based Writer/Director and the Founder of CongestedCat Productions. She focuses on character-driven narrative projects that explore social issues through humor and horror. Her work, consisting of over a dozen short films, a web series, and two feature films, has screened at film festivals around the world with coverage on press outlets such as Indiewire and BuzzFeed. Through a desire to support other filmmakers, she teaches workshops on crowdfunding and creative distribution methods, empowering creators to build their audience and get their work made and seen. She was a selected fellow in the Artist Academy of The Film Society of Lincoln Center as part of the 2018 New York Film Festival; and she won the Lois Weber Pioneer Award for her leadership in film at the 2019 Queens World Film Festival. She's currently beginning development for her third feature, Silent Night; the screenplay for which was a quarter finalist in Slamdance's 2016 Screenplay Competition.

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Director Statement

The short was originally born out of a weekly writing group between screenwriter Kelsey Rauber, frequent collaborator Ryan Kramer, and myself. We try to meet up every week to give feedback to each other on new pages of ongoing projects or practice pitches that are either inspired by our own experiences or come out of challenges we give each other in session. This particular piece was a script Kelsey presented that was inspired by frustrations surrounding the lack of self-reflection and tangible progress in 2019 despite consent finally being a topic of discussion in the zeitgeist; as well as a general fascination with menstruation and evolution. I really liked the way it played with a both timely and timeless issue and did so via a high concept conveyed through a small contained encounter. We ended up workshopping it over a few meetups and, Kelsey and I decided to collaborate on it together with me as director. I'm really eager to discuss the final product with an audience.