Struggling to get over her ex-girlfriend, Gabriela impulsively decides to drop into an old job, where she unexpectedly runs into a friend from her past.
This short film will screen with other short films in Block 6 | Amor es Amor
Saturday, December 10th at 2pm
Palm Springs Art Museum. Palm Springs, California.
Buy Tickets Here
Struggling to get over her ex-girlfriend, Gabriela impulsively decides to drop into an old job, where she unexpectedly runs into a friend from her past.
April Maxey is a queer Chicana filmmaker born and raised in San Antonio, Texas. She is currently 1 of 8 participants in the prestigious AFI Directing Workshop for Women. Her short work has collectively screened at over 70 festivals across 14 countries and won 8 awards internationally, and have screened at Academy & BAFTA Qualifying festivals such as Palm Springs Int’l Shortfest, HollyShorts Film Festival, Outfest, & Flickerfest. Her short, After You Left, won the Shorts Jury Prize at the Milwaukee Film Festival. April is an alumna of Berlinale Talents, and was 1 of 9 participants chosen in their Short Film Station, with her project This Is You And Me. The screenplay for her 1hour drama pilot Work was a top 5 finalist for the New Orleans Film Festival Screenplay Competition. She holds a BFA in Film/Video from Pratt Institute and is currently based in Los Angeles.
In my work I am often interested in exploring the innate feelings of loneliness we feel as humans and our longing for connection. I wanted to tell the story of this queer Latina, who is at a crossroads in her life, searching for a way forward after a painful breakup. Often we feel like we lose a piece of our identity after a long term relationship ends, and we can be left wondering who we are without the other person, without the life we had grown so comfortable in. In this story, I wanted to show what the journey of reclamation of self might look like, though a queer, Chicana, sex-worker lens. I believe that by telling stories from underrepresented perspectives, we challenge audiences perceptions, and we create space and validity for experiences which may differ from what is usually depicted in the mainstream.
The story is inspired by personal experiences, and it was important to me to authentically depict the world of underground lap dance parties, without a lens of judgement. I worked in the sex industry during different transitional phases of my life, and most of the people in my life had no idea of my night job at that time. Many of my co-workers were closeted dancers as well, for fear of the very real stigma that comes along with any job in the sex industry. It was important to me to show dancing as a job, with ups and downs like any other, and to tell the story with nuance, without shame, and with characters that feel real and grounded.
For Gabriela, going back to this job gives her a sense of control over her life again, as she is going back to a world she knows. However it is when she is left in solitude, that she is ultimately able to come to a deeper understanding of herself and where she is at, and slowly begin to move forward.
