Connecting with another person, really bonding with them, can be very difficult as an adult. Whether you’re making a new friend, attempting to make a party a little less awkward with some small talk, or trying to preserve an intimate relationship, maintaining ties with other people is not as effortless as we’d like to think. This notion is integral to our September crowdfunding picks, all from women content creators.
Julia Ngeow’s short film “Eudaemonia” presents one brief, unexpected interaction between two strangers. Amy, a poor Brooklyn artist and tattooist, and Cara, a well-off young woman with wanderlust and a self-destructive streak, cross paths for a few “serendipitous and fleeting” moments. However, that abbreviated yet significant connection is exactly what both women need.
If Ngeow’s project is about strangers coming together, Lucie Rachel’s “Let Us Let Go” and “Soulmate(s)” from Alexandra Case and Stephanie Lynn are about well-established bonds threatening to fall apart. “Let Us Let Go” examines the insidious effect post traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) can have on a couple. Rachel’s short documentary is based on her experiences living with PTSD after a sexual assault, her partner’s frustration that he’s unable to help her, and how her art informs her healing process and vice versa.
“Soulmate(s)’” subject matter is lighter, but presents another type of couple with a strained relationship: best friends Samantha and Jessamine. Case and Lynn, the film’s writers and stars, portray two longtime friends who have pledged their unwavering love and devotion to one another. Which is all well and good until one of the women considers committing to and settling down with her boyfriend.
Finally, we have “Evolved,” a series about two self-proclaimed progressives who also happen to be white, straight, cis men from the middle class. Brothers Nate and Ben are dedicated to being politically correct and are adamant about championing the causes of those who were not born with the same amount of privilege. The only catch is that Nate and Ben are so hellbent on empathizing with everyone who is not a white, straight, cis man from the middle class that they’ve forgotten how to be true to themselves.
“Eudaemonia” (Short) — Written and Directed by Julia Ngeow
Eudaemonia: Greek origin; “commonly translated as ‘happiness’ or ‘human flourishing’.” That’s what Amy and Cara — two women who have never met before and will never meet again — experience when Cara accidentally breaks into the wrong apartment after locking herself out of her building. The characters’ unexpected collision helps alleviate Amy’s feelings of isolation and insignificance, and provides Cara with some much-needed confidence and support. Eudaemonia as a concept and a movie “plays with the notion of transience, and the power of an un-repeated moment,” explains writer/director Julia Ngeow. It emphasizes how the “fragility of our humanity consistently connects all people.”
“Eudaemonia” isn’t a prince and the pauper narrative, nor is it about the beginning of a beautiful friendship. It’s about the rare and seemingly innocuous moments in life when you regain your faith in humanity. The simple, non-earth shattering exchange between Amy and Cara is just a moment of mutual understanding and respect. It turns out that is enough to keep them going.
Be part of Ngeow and her team’s eudaemonia by contributing to the project and visiting its Seed&Spark profile.
You know how some people hate hearing words like “moist” or “panties”? That’s how a lot of politically engaged progressives and liberals feel when someone claims that “It’s really hard being a white man.” No one is more aware of this than brothers and feminists Nate and Ben, both of whom are struggling to be simultaneously happy and woke. Writer and co-director Danielle DiPaolo is interested in exploring the unique challenge self-aware white men face today. “I wrote this show to capture how sometimes it’s hard to be progressive (whoever you are!),” DiPaolo says. “It’s even harder when you’re dis-incentivized to change a system that — whether you like it or not — benefits you.”
DiPaolo and her co-director Viridiana Lieberman present this conflict with two main arcs in the “Evolved” pilot. Nate is working towards a promotion, as is his equally-qualified colleague Phoebe, who also happens to be black and a single mother. Ben isn’t having an easy time with his love life, either: his girlfriend requests a relationship rumspringa (aka a hall pass). Open relationships aren’t really Ben’s thing, but neither is being judgmental, jerkily monogamous, or prudish…right? Clearly, both Nate and Ben are trying to do the right thing and be their best selves. But they’re both aware of how easy it is for them to do the wrong thing, be their worst selves, and still do pretty well in life. It’s complicated.
Find out how you can help DiPaolo and Lieberman produce more episodes of “Evolved” by visiting the show’s Kickstarter page.
“Let Us Let Go” (Short Documentary) — Directed by Lucie Rachel
Sometimes you are in so much pain or things are so wrong that you don’t even know how to talk about it, how to express yourself. You don’t know how to accept help and the people around you don’t know how to give it. Lucie Rachel’s autobiographical short documentary “Let Us Let Go” is about a young woman in that type of situation — specifically, struggling with PTSD — and how her state of mind shapes the state of her relationship. The woman is coping with PTSD on her own, after surviving past sexual abuse, but she realizes quickly that she can no longer face her illness alone if she desires a healthy relationship with her partner.
Describing her personal experiences, Rachel says the PTSD “symptoms began affecting my everyday life and especially [my] relationship.” “When it was only affecting myself, I didn’t feel I had a real reason to find treatment,” she continues, “but when I saw how it was affecting Josh, I agreed that it was time to find help.” According to Rachel, documenting her struggles with PTSD and its negative effect on her relationship through filmmaking was a way to move forward and “potentially inspire others to speak out.”
Visit the “Let Us Let Go” Indiegogo page to contribute to and support the documentary.
“Soulmate(s)” — Written by Alexandra Case and Stephanie Lynn
Some platonic best friends vow to marry each other if they’re both single at age 40. Others are like Harry and Sally or Jake and Lainey, and are perfectly content with their friendship until they realize that they’re in love with each other. And then you have the co-dependent Samantha and Jessamine. They drunkenly vow to avoid settling down with a romantic partner until they have both met their soulmates. Because there’s no way that plan could backfire.
And, yet, the shit does indeed hit the fan in “Soulmate(s)” when Jessamine announces she wants to move in with her boyfriend, and Sam reminds her about the promise they made to each other in college. Everyone knows those attached-at-the-hip pals whose intense friendship is as passionate (and potentially fraught) as any romance. And, while films like “Bridesmaids” and “Frances Ha” focus on the friend who is left behind (i.e. single), we don’t often have the chance to see how an intimate friendship affects a couple trying to make a go of it. It’s possible Jess uses her friendship as an excuse to avoid growing up or transitioning to the next phase of her life. Writers Alexandra Case and Stephanie Lynn are “frustrated by the lack of representation for women in film, especially with the types of roles that are available for women.” Exploring what happens when one friend is content with the status quo, while the other begins to question it just might be the solution.
Check out the “Soulmate(s)” Seed&Spark page to contribute or to find out more about the project.
