Simply existing can be a confusing, scary, difficult endeavor. Many of us struggle with a lack of purpose, wish for better from life, or, even, know what we want but are prevented from getting it. Through the use of genre — be it absurdist comedy, a horror aesthetic, or fantasy world-building — this month’s VOD and web series picks are all projects that feature women battling these very dilemmas.
In Nikyatu Jusu’s short film “Suicide by Sunlight,” a black vampire is mostly able to assimilate into regular society but is separated from her children due to their father’s distrust of her. In another short, the ghostly “Come Be Creepy With Us,” director Beth Fletcher explores the aimlessness and deep melancholy experienced by a 20-something woman who is struggling to adjust to big changes in life. And Misha Calvert’s web series, “All Hail Beth,” follows a lonely, depressed woman who is ready to end her life, but suddenly wakes up as Babylonian goddess Ishtar, and must learn how to handle her unexpected empowerment.
Here are Women and Hollywood’s VOD and web series selections for December.
VOD
Recently released as a Vimeo pick, Sierra Leonean-American filmmaker Nikyatu Jusu and co-writer Robin Shanea Williams’ short film, “Suicide by Sunlight,” premiered at Sundance Film Festival 2019, where it competed for the Short Film Grand Jury Prize. Awarded funding through the Through Her Lens program in 2017, the film follows a woman, Valentina (Natalie Paul), who is desperate to be reunited with her young daughters, from whom she is estranged.
Set in a world populated by vampires, Valentina one of them herself, Jusu’s world-building incorporates an interesting biological detail that has long gone unconsidered in more mainstream vampire-focused stories: as a black woman, Valentina is protected from the sun by her skin’s melanin, and thus able to “daywalk” — and therefore assimilate. But being who she is denies her access to her children, and she struggles to control her bloodlust; as Jusu puts it, “she essentially must repress who she is in order to become a normal member of society — or [at least] the veneer of normalcy.”
Jusu credits a sensitivity toward the narrative to her majority female crew, with most departments headed by women, including director of photography Daisy Zhou, editor Marina Katz, and production designer Alison Melillo. As for inspiration, Jusu looked to acclaimed African-American science fiction author Octavia Butler, and also drew from her own Sierra Leonean heritage, and stories from West African mythology. “There are real-life ramifications for being a darker skinned human being, or being a black person in America, and I wanted to explore what it would be like to turn that disenfranchisement upside-down and essentially remix the vampire mythology,” she explained. The result is an incredible short film, which — having traveled around the festival circuit since its January debut — firmly presents Jusu as a talent to watch.
You can watch “Suicide by Sunlight” now on Vimeo.
“Come Be Creepy With Us” (Short) – Directed by Beth Fletcher
Shot over four days, and set in an apartment, “Come Be Creepy With Us” is a horror comedy about a young woman battling existential angst in the wake of losing her job, and being left by her long-term boyfriend. Anna (Adelaide Lummis) thought she had her life figured out when she finished college, but as many of us know, your 20s can be difficult waters to navigate, emotionally and mentally. Not so common, however, is being visited by the living corpse of a girl who drowned at summer camp under your care — which is where the genre element comes into this story. When Bonnie (Jasmine Kimiko) appears in Anna’s apartment, they begin to bond unexpectedly, and Anna finds she is able to confide in the other girl about her depression and insecurities.
The film, written by Michael Calciano and directed by Beth Fletcher, was funded through Kickstarter, where Fletcher shared on the campaign page how she had connected with the sense of listlessness and uncertainty that Anna is dealing with. “I no longer have schedules for school, I don’t have any sort of consistency at work, and to be quite honest it feels like I’m lost a lot of the time,” she explained in her director’s statement. “Anna is very much in the same spot … Trying to figure out where to go next, and letting that fear of not knowing keep you where you are. She feels trapped by her fear, unable to move forward, but knowing there’s no going back.”
With its swampy set design and absurdist humor, the film inventively transforms an otherwise ordinary apartment into a much more interesting setting. With a fresh visual style that keeps the story moving along, “Come Be Creepy With Us” offers a relatable expression of existential anxiety that many viewers are likely to connect with.
“Come Be Creepy With Us” is available to watch now on YouTube.
Web Series
“All Hail Beth” – Written and Directed by Misha Calvert
In this somewhat more light-hearted web series, a young New York woman, Beth (Layla Khosh), suddenly wakes up one day to find she has become Ishtar, Babylonian goddess of sex and love. Where before she was mistreated by her boss and co-workers, neglected by her friends, and constantly berated by her older sister, suddenly Beth is overwhelmed by strangers and acquaintances alike fawning over her everywhere she goes. It’s an extreme change in attitude for the lonely, depressed Beth to acclimatize to.
Writer-director Misha Calvert, creator of a number of other web series such as “Step Into My Office,” explained in an interview with New York Women in Film & Television that her work is generally focused on gender power dynamics, and summed up “All Hail Beth” as a story “about what it’s like to go from powerlessness to empowered, and how much that is awesome, but also scary and weird.”
For Beth, becoming a goddess doesn’t necessarily mean a sudden end to her difficulties in life, and as the press materials for the series hint, she must learn to not only control her power, but also to reclaim her confidence, and find happiness — the two dilemmas that made existing as regular, non-goddess Beth so challenging. With plenty of humor and empathy, the series charts Beth’s journey toward managing exactly that.
The six-part “All Hail Beth” is available to watch now via BRIC TV on YouTube.
