Director’s Statement

'Shush, Now' is a short, simple story that follows Kara, a seven-year-old girl, who discovers her mother in a sexual act with another man. I wanted to examine how a child would respond to that in a truthful way. At that age, our views aren't compounded as in adulthood - we are almost pre-moral - and so, I wanted every element of the story to flow from that. We are stuck to Kara's POV throughout, and because of her innocence, the story went to some surprising places. Namely, Kara doesn't necessarily think her discovery is a bad thing. It is, ironically, more complex in a child's mind. She knows something isn't right, but she loves her mother, and she wants her to be happy. As such, her decision at the end is innocently perverse, unsteadily happy, but ultimately, I hope, truthful.

My intention was for this to be a simple story so that there was space for the delivery and form to breathe: so the actors, specifically our wonderful lead Sarah Pacini, were given stage to perform; the technical elements of cinematography, sound design, setting, music, could play together and cultivate an atmosphere of a distant, hazy, summer memory; and that there was room for the audience to feel the tension, waiting to see how Kara would react.