Still Life
Still Life
A late ‘90s Bay Area coming-of-age romantic-comedy drama about loving while losing, and living in the liminal
Story
Still Life is a coming-of-age romantic comedy-drama that tracks 15-year-old Dafne through the last four months of 1999; the last four months before her mother dies of leukemia. Weaving lessons from English literature, French, physics, and ballet into the unfolding story of Dafne’s first love and her mother’s death, this film offers a meditation on the nature of experiencing monumental trauma in the midst of ongoing daily life—the paradox of a Still Life.
Team
Lauren Shapiro grew up along the Highway 24 corridor, with a detour to U.C. Santa Cruz for a Ph.D. in Psychology. Her research focused on how young adults make sense of their romantic relationships and forge their identities through humor, metaphor, and narrative. She spent much of her career studying jokes and stories when in fact she wanted to write them. She has written and produced news and longform stories for KPFA Radio and has served as a story consultant for the short dark feminist comedy The Callback (in post-production) and Assistant Producer for the comedic narrative feature 39 1/2. Still Life is the first feature film she has written, and marks her directorial debut.
Anjali Sundaram, Director of Photography, has written, directed, produced, and shot independent features, documentary and music videos. Her work has screened at film festivals nationally and abroad, and she has received grants and awards from the Princess Grace Foundation, the San Francisco Arts Commission, and Syracuse University. She is a professor in the Cinema Department at City College of San Francisco.
Kara Herold, Co-Producer, writes, directs, and produces award winning films that employ wit, thought-provoking storytelling, and dynamic visual assemblages to comment upon the uneasy intersections between feminist perspectives and dominant cultural expectations and institutions. Her film Bachelorette, 34 played at MOMA in New York City and her documentary Grrlyshow premiered at Sundance. She won Best Feature Director at the 2020 La Femme International Film Festival for her narrative feature 39 1/2 and is currently in post-production for a dark feminist comedy called The Callback. She is a professor of film at Syracuse University.
Updates
We have an amazing local cast and crew, primarily composed of women (e.g. Director, Producer, DP, Gaffer, PA...), including folks who have worked on films such as Fremont, Dìdi, and The Diary of a Teenage Girl. We started principal photography in June and now have a rough cut of the film. You can watch the trailer here:
We are currently raising funds to cover the cost of post-production: Filming pickups, sound mixing, and color correction. Our dream is to submit the film to festivals this summer (2025)!
Press
Support Still Life
1 / Make a Tax Deductible Contribution
Still Life is fiscally sponsored by From the Heart Productions. To make a tax deductible contribution to support the film, you can mail a check to:
From The Heart Productions
1013 Harbor Ave. #53
Oxnard, CA 93035
Be sure to write Still Life in the memo.
or click here.
2 / Give Directly
If you would like to support Still Life directly (not tax-deductible, but we receive a higher percentage of the funds), you can do so here:
