Candace

Candace has played at festivals worldwide including the Mill Valley Film Festival, Outfest, the Rhode Island International Film Festival, the Portland International Film Festival and the American Pavilion Emerging LGBTQ Filmmakers Showcase at the Cannes Film Festival, where it won Best Film. The below is an industry screener, accessible by password.

about

Candace was written by Em Weinstein and Stella Baker and stars Stella Baker and Moses Ingram. It was produced by Michael Breslin and Alix Masters. The film was shot by Alexa Wolf with music by Jacob Masters.

Candace was shot in August of 2017 by a cast and crew of Yale School of Drama and Yale College students and professional filmmakers. 

Candace was made by a diverse team of artists the vast majority of whom identify as women, queer, and/or trans.

synopsis:

The day before Charlie leaves for college, her relationship with her best friend Nina explodes as they figure out how to say goodbye. Candace explores questions of race, queerness, and identity through the messy intimacy of young female friendship.

director’s statement:

For so many young women, our close friendships with other women are when we first come into ourselves. These friendships are intimate; the borders of platonic and erotic love constantly shift, reform, and blur. For many, these relationships are the sites of our first sexual encounters, first realizations of identity, and first experiences of the excitement and confusion of love and heartbreak. 

I made a film that shows the moment of fracture between two young women who have been intimately close since childhood, with special focus on how race and sexuality play into the fissure of their friendship. Often, we fall away from our childhood friends over time, and through this heartbreak there is usually an event that we can trace that chasm back to. A fight, a betrayal, a kiss. These moments are often as tiny and subtle as they are painful. Candace is about one of these moments.

The film takes place in a pool and a bathtub. These were the spaces of my childhood in which utopia felt possible and identity mutable. But as the two women in Candace grow up, the realities of race, sexuality, and lived trauma exacerbate the pain of parting. The women outgrow the pool; they sit as oversized children with hope and fear in a tiny tub. In its short 9 minute runtime, Candace works to illuminate the strange, sometimes erotic intimacy between girl friends trying to stay together as the world drags them apart.  - Em Weinstein

music:

Songs + music for Candace were composed by Jacob Masters aka Highschool Jacob

screenings:

Montclair Film Festival

Candace will screen at the Montclair Film Festival in Montclair, New Jersey this May.

CASCADIA International Women’s Film Festival

Candace will screen at the  CASCADIA International Women’s Film Festival from April 11-14 in Bellingham, Washington.

Wicked Queer Boston LGBTQ Film Festival

Candace will screen at the Wicked Queer Boston LGBTQ Film Festival in March 2019.

Chéries Chéris

Candace will screen at Chéries Chéris, France’s largest LGBTQ Film Festival in Paris in November 2018.

Portland Film Festival

Candace will screen at the Portland Film Festival in Portland, OR in October 2018.

Mill Valley Film Festival

Candace will screen at the Mill Valley Film Festival in San Rafael, CA in October 2018.

New Hampshire Film Festival

Candace will screen at the New Hampshire International Film Festival in Portsmouth, NH in October 2018.

Twist: Seattle Queer Film Festival 

Candace will screen at the Twist: Seattle Queer Film Festival in Seattle, WA in October 2018.

Great Lakes International Film Festival

Candace will screen at the Great Lakes International Film Festival in Erie, PA in September 2018.

HollyShorts

Candace will screen at the HollyShorts Film Festival in Los Angeles on August 12th, 2018.l

Flickers RIIFF

Candace will screen at the Flickers Rhode Island International Film Festival in Providence, Rhode Island on August 8th, 2018.

Outfest

Candace screened at Outfest Los Angeles, the world's premiere LGBTQ Film Festival in July, 2018.  

Brooklyn Women's Film Festival

Candace screened at the Brooklyn Women's Film Festival in June, 2018

American Pavilion Emerging Filmmakers Showcase at the Cannes Film Festival

Candace screened at the American Pavilion Emerging LGBTQ Filmmakers Showcase at the Cannes Film Festival where it won Best Short.

team:

Em Weinstein - Director, Writer

Stella Baker - Writer, Actor (Nina)

Moses Ingram - Actor (Charlie)

Alexa Wolf - Director of Photography

Alix Masters - Producer

Michael Breslin - Producer

Craig Weiseman - Editor 

Stephanie Cohen - Production Designer

Isabella Olaguera - 1st Assistant Director

Mika Eubanks - Costumes, Hair & Makeup

Yuri Inoue, - 1st Assistant Camera

Elsa Gibsonbraden - Art Director

Armando Huipe - Line Producer, UPM

Deanna Williams - Production Sound Mixer

Dan Debrey - Gaffer

Rachel Kessler - Key Grip

Stratton Bailey - Underwater Camera Operator

Julian Evans - Post Production Sound

Jacob Masters - Original Music

Emma Gregoline - Graphic Designer

Derek Means - Color Grading

Alexander Bailey - 2nd Assistant Camera

Ronan Day-Lewis - DIT

Kathy Ruvuna - Sound Assistant

With Penelope Keen and Amaira Traynham as child Charlie and Nina