STILLS FROM THE FILM
Selected by the California Women’s Film Festival & Dreamachine International Film Festival
Logline
A young woman tries to be happy for her best friend.
Synopsis
After a tiring and boring day setting up life in a new town, Christy gets a call from her best friend Emily. Christy chose to leave their hometown after a long term relationship with her boyfriend ended abruptly and badly. She and her ex-boyfriend were exceptionally close. They shared the same sense of humor, the same memories, the same fumbles and small victories entering adulthood. Only now, isolated in a new environment, does Christy begin to realize that she took their closeness for granted.
Meanwhile, Christy’s friend Emily stayed in town and became engaged to her own boyfriend. Christy is overjoyed for her childhood bestie, and this is just one of Emily’s phone updates about the venue, bridesmaids, and wedding dress. But after an especially taxing day, with a flu coming on, Christy finds herself unusually vulnerable during that alchemical time of sunset, when day transforms to night.
This time of day promotes a kind of honesty, and Christy lets slip some bittersweet reflections of her rapport with her ex-boyfriend. Those memories have replayed in her mind thousands of times. The cute, the silly, the pathetic – now that she recalls how much pride she felt making him laugh. But Christy snaps out of it in time to smack her forehead. She would hate to make things about herself during her dear friend’s special moment. But after their call ends, her composure shakes, and the floodgates are open.
Director’s Statement
The script began with a few lines of dialogue – mourning an intense relationship that had died over a year ago, but still wouldn’t leave the main character alone. I had a clear idea of who the character Christy was: someone who was cheerful, kind, no-nonsense, who treasured her women friends and had given everything to a long term relationship that ended suddenly. The death of that relationship created a wound so wide in her life that it made sense for her to leave home and try to start again.
I wanted to film this during sunset, where the vivid gold and shadow hues would convey the intensity of the emotions felt by the main character. The colors would cool as the sun disappeared and the piece shifted. Christy would be battling several emotions – longing for the heart-to-heart closeness she once had with her ex-boyfriend, but also the deep-seated fear that comes with watching your peers seemingly glide through life’s milestones, and feeling with every passing day that you won’t be able to do the same. Christy is not the kind of person to be passive-aggressive, and she isn’t jealous of her friend’s big upcoming wedding in their shared hometown. Not at all – Christy is genuinely thrilled about her friend finding a ball gown fit for a princess, the right flower arrangements, and booking her favorite music band. I wanted to depict the dimensional, supportive sisterhood that I’ve been lucky enough to experience in my life.
Rather, Christy fears her friend is getting married and leaving her behind. She can already see her friend zooming through the moments that traditionally follow marriage – home ownership, having kids, and career advancements. All these emotions might not bubble to the surface during the day, but as the sun descends, Christy is compelled to think out loud, entering the altered state of consciousness that comes with being out at nightfall and alone in your car. The irony is that if things were slightly different, Christy would share her friend’s status as a bride. After a moment of weakness, she drives home.