Others

Directed by Grace Rex

A collection of vignettes involving people in everyday moments who are connected by an umbilical cord to otherworldly beings.

War Story

We kept running out of money while making this thing! It took us a year and a half to film it in blocks. We’d get some money and then spend it and run out of money and then have to get more of it. It was a very fun but protracted process.

There were originally eight vignettes and the one we ended up cutting was the most expensive to shoot. I paid a neighbor in Brooklyn to use their backyard. The piece involved a little girl beating a metal trashcan and setting it on fire. I really upset the neighbors who were trying to sleep while we were filming and I still feel badly about that! The actors in that vignette were so good - Arden Wolfe and Marinda Anderson - but it tonally didn’t end up feeling like it belonged in the movie.

The role of Diane was written for Suzanne Hevner. We were stuck in an airport together for like twelve hours once after meeting on a TV set and she told me about her past battle with cancer. She had a very intimate relationship with her mortality and the way she spoke about contending with death and how she thusly approached her life was very moving. The ideas for her vignette came out of those conversations. She brought so much weight and humor to her role. Her cancer unfortunately came back and she passed away about a year after we finished filming. I’m endlessly grateful that she is in the fabric of the movie and that I had the privilege of learning from her.

Arthur French, who plays John, passed away this summer. He is and was a legend and I can’t believe he came to work on our little movie. He was very kind and generous with his time and his performance moves me.