Filmmaker Statement

My mom passed away when I was 17. I only have a handful of pictures and zero videos of her. A couple years ago, on my birthday, I got a text from a number I didn’t recognize. It simply said “happy birthday” and had a YouTube link. I clicked it and my heart stopped. It was my mom. I had to pull over immediately. She was telling me how proud she was of me and how she wondered what I’d become. Maybe a policeman, a preacher, or even a clown. I couldn’t believe it. Well, it turns out the random phone number was my friend Jon’s dad, who had found this video on an old VHS tape they made before a 1999 school event. I was 16. This experience got me thinking...what if I could respond? I called my writing partner Tanner the next day. This in a way, is that response. Our goal was to make something creepy yet magical that would tempt you to laugh when you think you should cry, and to cry when you think you should laugh. To ride the line between humor and heartbreak in the same way life often does.