LAYING OUT

On a sunny day, Maggie and Joanna sit together at the beach. Maggie is telling Joanna about a guy she has been seeing, but there doesn’t seem to be any substance to that relationship even though she keeps repeating that, “things are going great.” Joanna’s responses seem incisive, but also strange; she appears to intuit that Maggie has been fantasizing about having a penis without being told this. The two women walk to the shore – it is revealed that they are wearing mermaid tail bathing suit bottoms that make it difficult to walk. Over the course of the film, Maggie begins to open up more about her fantasies about having a penis, as well as her own misogynistic thinking. Joanna seems to understand her completely.

Director’s Bio

Joanna Arnow is a filmmaker based in Brooklyn. She recently wrote and directed “Bad at Dancing,” a narrative short that was awarded the Berlinale Silver Bear Jury Prize. She also directed several other films including personal documentary feature “i hate myself :)”, which was featured on top ten lists on IndieWire and Fandor. Her films have been screened at festivals including Rotterdam, New York Film Festival, and Hong Kong International.

Plays in

CLOSING NITE

We close the 2019 Nitehawk Shorts Festival with eight short films that present stories on the intimacy of the nail salon, absurdist, dark comedies, and powerful coming-of-age stories about friendship.