Coming Soon
HOMECOMING
Log Line
When a young professional dancer is suspended from a strict dance academy for substance abuse, she must return home to spend the week with her domineering dance coach mother, who cannot empathize with the change in her daughter.
Synopsis
Homecoming, a 20-minute short family drama, explores self-autonomy by examining the dynamic between a victory-hungry dance coach, Amber, and her prodigy daughter, Phoebe. After separating from her family to attend college, Phoebe realizes she has been living in her mother's shadow. As Phoebe begins questioning her intentions, she discovers she does not have the drive or motivation to be a dancer outside of wanting to meet the expectations that have been set for her. The film begins after Phoebe is suspended from a prestigious dance academy. Now, she must return home to confront her confusion, her disappointed family, and her tendency to numb out of reality through substances.
Our Cast.
Meet the incredible actors who make up the Thomas family!
Team
Meet the principal crew behind 'Homecoming.' This team has been working diligently over the past few months in the pre-production stages of the project. Find more crew members on our Instagram page @homecomingshortfilm_
Directors Statement
The idea for this film came to me last year at a low point. I was giving up, and I was thinking a lot about expectations-both for myself and the expectations that others have of me. I felt boxed in and highly self-aware to the point where it was uncomfortable. I didn't want to stay in school and was thinking about dropping out. The idea of Homecoming at this point came as a question. I was asking myself, where is this pressure coming from? In answering this, I created these characters embodying my internal conflict to examine this question. It started with Phoebe, who represents the feelings of resistance, stubbornness, and ennui I was feeling. Then, I created the perfectionist mother, Amber, to embody my expectations of myself and the societal pressure I felt trapped in. Finally, the brother, Isaac, and the father character, Richard, were imagined as representing the pieces of myself that wanted to see myself get better but didn't know how. This project began as a self-help and exploration tool. Over the course of development, it has grown into a much larger story. Now I see this film as envisioning a much more complex narrative-one about family, substance abuse, pressure, and the weight of expectations, whether internal, societal, or familial. Gearing up to get ready to go into production, it's clear to me now that I want this story to show that there is strength in knowing when it's time to take a step back and take a break. I want my audience to leave with the notion that "messing up" isn't always the worst thing that can happen, and sometimes our mistakes lead us to exactly where we need to be.