Filmmaker Statement

Over the last few years - and especially during the pandemic - I started to deal with depression and feeling really down on myself. During this time, I kind of started to hide from people, because I didn't want anyone to see me during this personal low. But at a certain point, I realized that hiding from people actually made things worse. I also had the self-awareness to know that a my negative feelings were self-inflicted and a little self-absorbed. I knew that I wanted to make a film about feeling like a failure, but not make it a "woe is me" story, and show how sometimes we need to get outside of ourselves in order to gain some perspective...In addition to that, I was fixated on the idea of making a movie where a guy is dressed as Shrek (that's a whole other story). Once I put these two ideas together, I came up with this script, which I think is weirdly the personal film I think I've ever made.