Bloom

Director Statement

This is a coming-of-age tale about recognizing an ancestral pollution that leaves fingerprints on your skin. I want to make something that appreciates the complications of realizing self destructive behavior and illustrates the nuanced condition of being a victim of abuse and then becoming an abuser. This cycle is a huge part of our cultural identity, not to mention personal lives (in one way or another). Yet, this cycle is hardly talked about in an honest way. Rylie is experiencing a need to identify as a victim and yet also as an offender, and thus in perverse and tragically human way: be whole. That feeling is the life blood of the film. My vision is to create an honest story about the cycle of abuse and how it interweaves within the main characters. I want this story to be hard to watch because of its sincerity and yet impossible to look away for the same reason. I want to portray an honest character who is drowning in a sea of her own past. This cycle of abuse touches so many people, and I want to talk about it.