I Nominate Jamie C. is a comedy short film about girlhood set in 2014. It follows Anna and her best friend Fiona as they try to get a boy’s attention by doing the ALS Ice Bucket Challenge. The beginning of the film is joyful, optimistic, and safe but as it progresses it becomes about one of those moments in adolescence when a piece of our innocence, our sense of trust in the world, is ripped away from us, and we emerge subtly but permanently changed.
I want to tell this story because I believe it’s important to examine not only the obviously seismic traumas that rupture our sense of self, but also the smaller embarrassments and violations that leave hairline fractures on our psyches—wounds that may seem insignificant at first, but spread in ways we only recognize years later. Here, that shift comes through an encounter with male violence and the dawning awareness of its ubiquity. But this story is also about the love and comfort that, if we’re lucky, we find in the friends who navigate this frightening world alongside us, and in our mothers, who—even when they misunderstand us, even when they can be cruel—still protect us.
The aesthetic will be maximalist—saturated with color, pattern, texture, and clutter. A visual assault of 2014 trends and teenagers attempting to find themselves through the clothes they wear and the shit they put in their rooms. The film will be from the protagonist, Anna’s perspective. At times, it will feel like body horror—as she looks in the mirror and hates certain parts of her body. At times, it will feel fetishistic—as she fixates on the sexy new glasses of her hot young therapist. At times, it will feel rose-tinted—as she basks in the joy of being alone with her best friend.
We’re currently in the process of conducting tech scouts at our locations, casting principal actors, finalizing the script, and fundraising. We have people who have supported our previous films who will serve as major donors for this film. We plan to shoot in late October and assemble a final cut with sound and color by February. We will then begin submitting to festivals.
