Filmmaker Statement

At its core, this is a story about love. Parental love. Platonic love. Romantic love. Self-love. In many ways, Annabelle and Tessie are two sides of the same coin, despite seemingly large superficial differences. This even plays out in the professions they both have. People have many assumptions about sex work and bookkeeping. On its surface, sex work seems like a profession that would require an ability to be intimate with people, namely through touch, and bookkeeping seems very hands off and impersonal. While this may be true, sex work can also be very impersonal, an almost clinical going-through-the-motions and bookkeeping can be quite personal as you can learn a lot about someone by how they spend their money. As such, it important for me to have this story play on reversals of expectation in as many ways as possible. This is far from a simple story. It is intended to make you think. Discuss. And hopefully, self-reflect.