Bellybutton
Trending of the Month • Short Films, Drama, 07-Aug-2023
A Y2K teenager struggles to connect fantasy and reality when she gets a piercing on her birthday. Hilary Eden directs “Bellybutton,” a coming-of-age glance at the factors shaping a teenage girl’s self-understanding of beauty and identity. Parents out of sight, Lissy observes her older brother and his friend watching a “Girls Gone Wild” episode in their living room. From there, we see Lissy and Steph, her friend, hanging out at the park. The two discuss their findings from teenage magazines, rehearse pop routines, and speak to what they know of their anatomy. Following a belly button piercing, it’s learned that some people in her family don’t share an equal excitement. Eden’s film is an earnest observation of the cultural, commercial, and domestic surroundings of a young girl in the early 2000’s. -Jinho Myung. Writer & Director: Hilary Eden. Producer: Oliver Daly. Starring: Izabella Johnson, Jack William Reid, Izzy Crenshaw, Alex Isles, Miguel Angel Hernandez. Director of Photography: Adam Leene. Editor: Grant Singer. Composer: Max Hershenow. Casting: Candace Bernstein & Miriam Hoffman. 1st AD: Elaine Chu. 1st AC: Minami Moriyama. 2nd AC: Saori Kinai.
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