The Pick Up
10 min, 2018 - 2k Scope (2.39), RED, 5.1 surround
Distribution: G6 Pictures
The Pick Up, written and directed by G Chesler
Synopsis
Sullen teen Melanie’s trip home from swim practice takes her on a bumpy ride, facing adulthood.
Kayla Fuentes (Melanie) with Ashna Sharan (Mom) and Alexandra Wehr (the Jogger). Image Hans Charles + Meagan Arnold. Poster design Samantha Beach
The Pick Up is a co-production with the Mason Film Lab in George Mason University's Film and Video Studies Program. Check out a BTS video from set, edited by Britney Flores.
Press.
“21 Must See Films About LGBTQ People of Color” The Advocate
“International Filmfest 2019 Visits DC Classrooms” DC Area Educators for Social Justice
“DC Shorts Film Festival Hosts LGBTQ Showcase on September 12”, Tagg Magazine
“LGBT Themes Abound in this Year’s DC Shorts Film Festival”, Washington Blade
Review: “In The Pick Up, filmmaker Giovanna Chesler's extraordinary short film, the tension and upheaval confronting a family emanate chiefly from the unspoken. Two girls, Melanie (Kayla Fuentes) and Stephanie (Zoe Elizabeth) wait (and wait) for their father to pick them up from swimming. Instead, it is their (unnamed) mother (Ashna Sharan) who finally retrieves them. The car ride home is brief but charged, punctured by a flat tire and rescue in the form of a svelte, "light butch" jogger named Alex (Alexandra Wehr). Neither woman has experience in changing tires, and yet somehow they accomplish the task and embark on a conversation laced with flirtatious banter. The camera turns often to the young Fuentes, who conveys a wide range of emotions from frustration with her mother to fear about her family's impending rupture to fraught ambivalence about her mother’s attraction to Alex. Melanie appears none too pleased with her mother’s non-verbal “coming out” before her very eyes. But then we learn more about Melanie's own (possibly evolving) identity as she chats with her friend Angel (Sydni Gift) on her mobile phone. Here, Chesler presents a reversal of the traditional coming out stances. Instead of the child coming out to the parent, the mother (apparently) “comes out” to her child. Indeed, Chesler reimagines the possibilities of the coming-out story genre itself by eschewing declaration altogether and embracing understatement through snippets of pointed dialogue and expressive communication from the film's gifted principals. The Pick Up has stayed with me long after my initial viewing, and it deserves to become a classic of the queer film canon.”
--Yermiyahu Ahron Taub, www.yataub.net, author of Beloved Comrades: a Novel in Stories
Awards.
Best Short Fiction Film, Cineffable - Paris
Best Short Film (Audience Award) image+nation Montreal, Canada
Jury Award, Screenwriting, Big Muddy Film Festival
Bronze Award for Independent Short Fiction (Jury), TIVA Peer Awards
Screenings.
November 28, 2020 Filmfestival Pink Apple, Frauenfeld, Switzerland
June 13, 2020 (online) Pride on Screen, State College, PA
February 22, 2020 Queer Screen/Mardi Gras Film Festival, New South Wales, Australia
December 17, 2019 Shorts After Dark, Miracle Theater, Washington DC 8pm
October 27 Cine Club avec Cineffable, Paris, France
October 13 Seattle Queer Film Festival, WA
October 12 CMG Short Film Fest, Los Angeles
July 25 - 27 Lakefront Film Festival, Columbia, MD
May 30 + 31 Bechdel Film Fest, Akron, Ohio
May 4 London Lesbian Film Festival, Ontario, Canada
April 28 Film Fest DC, Washington, DC
April 12 Festival Lesbian Printemps, Toulouse, France
April 12 + 13 Immaginaria International Festival of Lesbians and Other Rebellious Women, Rome, Italy
April 4 Spring Out! Middle Tennessee LGBT+ Film Festival, Murphreesboro, TN
March 2 Outfest Fusion Los Angeles, CA
Feb 26 Lesbian Looks, Tucson, AZ
Feb 24 Big Muddy Film Festival, Carbondale, Illinois (AWARD - Jury, Screenwriting)
Feb 23, 2019 Best Short Films of Cineffable, Paris, France
Nov 23 image+nation, 9:15pm, Montreal, Canada (AWARD - Audience, Best Short)
Nov 10 Indianapolis LGBT Film Festival, 4pm, Indianapolis, Indiana
Nov 3 Cineffable Paris Lesbian and Feminist Film Festival, Paris, France (AWARD - Audience, Best Fiction Short)
October 9 Tampa International Gay and Lesbian Film Festival, Florida
Sept 7, 9 and 12 DC Shorts Film Festival, Washington DC, E Street Cinema
August 18 North Carolina Gay and Lesbian Film Festival, Carolina Theater, Durham, NC 3pm
June 9 PrideFest Seattle, Northwest Film Forum, 1230pm
May 25 Cinema Systers Film Festival, Paducah, Kentucky
May 24 Kashish Mumbai International Queer Film Festival, Mumbai, India, 415pm
April 5, 2018, Brattle Theater Boston Wicked Queer Film Festival, Boston, Massachusetts, 630pm
Cast and Crew
Kayla Fuentes - Melanie
Ashna Sharan - Mom
Alexandra Wehr - Jogger
Zoe Elizabeth - Stephanie
Sydni Gift - Angel
Director + Screenwriter - Giovanna Chesler
Producer - Lisa Thrasher
Director of Photography - Hans Charles
Editor - Damon Beirne
Composer - Allyson Newman
Associate Producer - Rebekah Mejorado
Assistant Directors - Nicholas Canonico, Donovan Jones, Bryan Steger, Andy Riddle, Jessica Riddle
Production Coordinators - Livia Elgart, Kauri George, Adriana Lopez, Carol Merengwa, Chris Rothgeb, Lester Sauble, Taimar Tookhi, Andre Wilson
Casting Assistant + Director's Assistant - Lucas Muratore
Post Production Assistant - Andre Wilson
Second Unit Director of Photography - Damien Coor
1st Camera AC - Everd Rijzewijk
2nd Camera AC - Kyle Van Dyke
Camera Assistants - Mursal Akram, Jack Bolger, Emily Daenzer, Mikayla Fridley, Jason Gilligan, Naod Haddish, Nick Lewis, Jamie Sullivan Mahon, Julian Nguyen, Erblin Nushi, Lindsey Oblitey, Adam Reforzo, Hector Tolentino III, Tara Tung, Cai Wang
Gaffers - Mike Wilson, Andrew Jorgensen
Key Grip - Chris Franklin
Grip + Electric Swing - Darcelle Larkiin, Nathan Taylor
Grip - Russell Howard, Lester Sauble
Sound Recordist - Mikayla Fridley, Ryan Judge, Chris Rothgeb
Boom Operator - Kaidan Blackmer, DeShane Jones, Jason Gilligan
Script Supervisor - Serge Magnavox
Continuity - Amanda Rhodes
Key Hair + Make Up - Nasreen Alkhateeb
Hair + Make Up - Emma Baskir
Production Design + Set Decoration - Charlie Hall, Zoe Peters, Rebekah Mejorado, Max Stempniewicz, Colin Stucki
Costume Dressers - Blaire Collingwood, Rebekah Mejorado, Lucas Muratore, Samantha Siewert
Catering + Craft Service - Adriana Lopez, Lester Sauble
Transportation - Russell Howard, Lester Sauble
Colorist + Online Editor - Robbie Carman, C.S.I.
Finishing Artist - Joey D'Anna, C.S.I.
Re-Recording Mixer - Cheryl Ottenritter, M.P.S.E., C.A.S.
Sound Design + Sound Edit: Rick Rush, Amanda Kraus
Additional Dialogue Recording - Zoe Lee Ottenritter
Titles + Visual Effects - David Mason III
Still Photography - Meagan Arnold, Will Sidaros
Poster Design - Samantha Beach
Behind the Scenes - Damon Beirne, Matt McKinney, John Christian Druitt, Britney Flores
A Production of G6 Pictures, in association with The Mason Film Lab and a Lisa Thrasher production