The short grew out of a feature I wrote at the Gaea Artist for Change Residency. The feature script was a semi-finalist at Sundance Writers Lab. I am rewriting in preparation for the Kickstarter Campaign for the feature film. SUPER EXCITED!
I wanted to tell a story about cutting. It was something I flirted with in high school after moving to the United States when we were evacuated from Yemen. That time I lost my best friend to appendicitis and was navigating a lot of feelings of being the outsider looking in. My desire to cut was something I kept a secret then later discovered it was not unique to me. So I needed to tell this story and later on I added the eating disorder as the manifestations of this for me was another form of self-harm. The short explores these two very secret diseases that affect several young women.