Film
SUMMON
Summon is an experimental short that explores female interaction and identity.
The film focuses on the relationship between white women and women of color and the consumption of the female body.
However, given the abstract nature of the film, no two viewers experience Summon the same.
DIRECTOR'S STATEMENT
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Every time I come up with an idea for a film – whether it be experimental or narrative – it comes to me in my dreams. I imagine this is because the movies I make are always extraordinarily personal and dictated by what I continuously ruminate on and what goes on in my subconscious.
I had the extreme privilege to be part of a group of student filmmakers that went to Paris to shoot experimental films, and the entire experience, along with the film, was incredibly introspective. I spent a lot of time by myself, recounting my experiences and delving into my perception of self. The film I made in Paris reflected the person I was while I was there and entirely represented my headspace at that time.
But the more significant experience was the widening of my worldview. This sparked not only by where I was, but by the incredibly strong, diverse, and complex women with whom I had the pleasure of working. These women helped me realize that the film I created, though somewhat universal, was particular to my own experience. But also, that there are so many specific, yet equally compelling stories I could have told to express the experience of womanhood. I wanted to dig deeper and give voice to experiences that I had yet to understand fully.
During this phase of introspection, I finally looked up and saw hundreds of women who looked just like me: white women of privilege. I started to question how many of these women would fight for women of color daily, and I began to question my behaviors. I realized my problem was that I was fighting the fight in my head, but not in real life. I was part of the problem.
From that point onward, my dreams began to shift until I had the same dreams and nightmares over and over; those dreams have become the film I have created today. There's no way I could ever presume to know the experience of a woman of color, and this film doesn't intend to do that. Instead, it has grown out of a desire to show variations on a truth – no experience is more valid or less valid because it is still a human experience. It focuses on the individual rather than the general.
Summon is a film where I'm trying to do better, not only as a filmmaker, but as a white woman, and as a human on this earth.