Growing up can be tough — navigating personal identity and self-expression as well as increasingly complicated relationships with family and friends is no easy task, especially when factors like gender and culture come into play. Our latest crowdfunding picks center on young women dealing with some of the bumps in the road, personal and familial, that come with growing into the person they’d like to be.
“Abuela and Me,” a short film directed by Julia Deleon, explores the generational effects of immigration through the relationship between Isabella and her grandmother, who struggle to bond due to a language barrier and their different cultural experiences.
In writer-director Giovanna Molina’s humorous short “Joan,” a 10-year-old girl attempts to prevent her parents from divorcing by inducing an allergic reaction from her cat.
“Salad Days,” written and directed by Jenna Miller, follows the childhood and adolescence of a girl solely within the confines of her bedroom. As she grows and changes, her room does too, painting a vivid portrait of a maturing young woman.
Here are Women and Hollywood’s latest women-created and women-centric crowdfunding picks.
“Abuela and Me” (Short) – Directed by Julia Deleon
In “Abuela and Me,” Isabella — who grew up in America and speaks only English — struggles to connect with her culture, as well as her imposing grandmother, a first generation immigrant from Mexico who mostly communicates in Spanish. But when Abuela’s health is threatened, and Isabella decides to get to know her better, she realizes they have far more in common than she thought. Through their strengthened relationship, Isabella is able to connect to her culture and the pieces of her identity she’s been missing out on.
Director Julia Deleon emphasizes immigration’s role in shaping families and the identities of the youngest generations. “Immigration becomes inexorably linked to identity. Each new generation after migration must decide how they define themselves in relation to culture,” she explains. “Is it by language? Food? Tradition? How much of the original culture do they preserve or blend with the new culture and how?”
“Abuela and Me” is first and foremost a film about the links to family and culture, told through the lens of the relationship between granddaughter and grandmother.
The short, based on Deleon’s own experiences with language and culture, is crowdfunding for location and production costs, transportation, food, hair and makeup, and permits.
You can help fund “Abuela and Me” by donating to its Seed&Spark campaign.
“Joan” (Short) – Written and Directed by Giovanna Molina
“Joan” uses dark humor to tackle the difficult and complex relationships between children and their parents. Ten-year-old Joan was named after various famous Joans — like Joan Jett and Joan Baez — but has never felt capable of living up to the expectations set by her disinterested parents. When her parents decide to get a divorce, she takes action: she uses her cat to induce an allergic reaction. Having grown up spending a lot of time alone, Joan is full of creativity, schemes, and drama, and enjoys trying on different “versions” of herself.
The film is inspired by the stories writer-director Giovanna Molina would invent as a child. “When you don’t have other siblings, you have a lot of time and energy to be creative,” she explains via her Seed&Spark campaign page. “I started making up stories from a young age, and my favorite stories were alternate realities of my own life. At times, I’d become so immersed in those stories that I started to believe they were real, and that is what birthed the script for ‘Joan.'”
Over 70 percent of “Joan’s” crew is female. The project will be made with support from the UCLA MFA Program in Production and Direction, and is crowdfunding primarily for production design, food, location fees, and the cost of a studio teacher.
Find out how to help “Joan” by visiting its Seed&Spark campaign.
“Salad Days” (Short) – Written and Directed by Jenna Miller
The bedroom is an important space, especially for young people experiencing the often tumultuous process of growing up: it’s a safe place, and a place to express yourself as you grow and change.
“Salad Days,” a short film written and directed by Jenna Miller, aims to showcase the life of a girl — from birth to young adulthood — through her bedroom, and the manner by which it changes. The short delves into the concept of the self-image and identity of young women as they progress toward adolescence and adulthood, and how identity and growth can be expressed in our possessions and the spaces we create for ourselves.
“Salad Days” is a student film created by seniors at Stevenson University, and is directed, written, and produced by female filmmakers. Donations will largely go toward authentic production design, which is essential in bringing the world of the film to life. “We want to create a real, lived-in environment for our character,” Miller says in the above campaign video.
Help make “Salad Days” a reality by donating via Seed&Spark.
To be considered for Women and Hollywood’s biweekly crowdfunding feature, please write to waheditorialfellows@gmail.com. All formats (features, shorts, web series, etc.) are welcome. Projects must be by and/or about women.
