Our short film “Affliction” premieres online today and is a Daily Shorts Pick by Film Shortage. Written by Kelsey Rauber and Directed by Christina Raia, and shot in August 2019.
Director Statement
The short was originally born out of a weekly writing group between screenwriter Kelsey Rauber, frequent collaborator Ryan Kramer, and myself. We try to meet up every week to either give feedback to each other on new pages of ongoing projects or practice pitches that are either inspired by our own experiences or come out of challenges we give each other in session (like from news stories or a draw of the hat type of exercise featuring genres and settings). This particular piece was a script Kelsey presented that was inspired by frustrations surrounding the lack of self-reflection and tangible progress in 2019 despite consent finally being a topic of discussion in the zeitgeist, as well as a general fascination with menstruation and evolution. I really liked the way it played with a both timely and timeless issue and did so via a high concept conveyed through a small contained encounter. We ended up workshopping it over a few meetups and, eventually, Kelsey and I decided to collaborate on it together with me as director. I'm really eager to discuss the final product with an audience.
