Five Secrets to Mom
All Films • Short Films, 13-Jun-2019
A teenager confesses five secrets to their mother on an anonymous online forum. Presented entirely as a screen capture of an old desktop computer, “Five Secrets to Mom,” by director Charles Dillon Ward, applies rudimentary digital tools in service of a modern teen admission, and the film alternates between darkly funny and weirdly unsettling. Inspired by a real thread found on Quora, Ward uses his own family photos, faces obscured by squiggles created in Microsoft Paint, and an automated voice that transforms vulnerable statements into blunt, awkwardly timed facts. The secrets start small (“I have drank alcohol before”) and become more revealing — intimate personal details filtered as automated archiving, mostly devoid of tone or context. -KA. Writer, Producer, Director, Editor: Charles Dillon Ward.
Up Next in All Films
-
A Seasonal Thing
New to Los Angeles, an aspiring music supervisor dreams of leaving his soul-sucking day job and establishing a new relationship. An easygoing comedy that tracks a couple days in the life of a well-meaning, self-described “idiot” during the holiday season in L.A. | Written and directed by Marcus J...
-
Thread
An office assistant at a culture website comes down with a mysterious illness. “Thread,” directed by Max Rosen, is both a satire on millennial workplaces (SUP “We’ve Got Content”), and a paranoia-doused descent into mental breakdown. River L. Ramirez plays Joni, who, along with several other youn...
-
Girl, Removed
A young woman impulsively travels to New York City alone, ignoring her mother's calls throughout the trip. Directed by Anahita Amirshahi. Cast: Ellena Eshraghi, Denton True, Gina Nicole Brown.
