Make Out Party

WRITER/DIRECTOR: Emily Esperanza
CINEMATOGRAPHER: Greg Stephen Reigh
PRODUCER: Eve Rydberg
EXECUTIVE PRODUCER: Eugene Sun Park
ASSOCIATE PRODUCERS: Adora Wilson-Eye
GENRE: Comedy
FORMAT: Featurette
STATUS: Festivals

SYNOPSIS

Make Out Party is a no-budget, high-style comedy of errors that follows three vibrant characters though a day of misadventure as they set out to attend hostess Mary Woah’s Make Out Party.

Meet Madame X, a leather-clad Venus with too many lovers; Band-Aid Box, a dapper-femme do-gooder just trying to make it through their day; and Bambi, a peppy Satanist-witch with no time for catcalls. Will they make it to gap-toothed-pin-up-queen Mary Woah’s Make Out Party? From meanie alien greaser gangs, to a pair of tough roller-skaters, a conniving librarian and a disgruntled waitress, our heroes sure have their work cut out for them. In the end, Make Out Party reminds us that we are all wild wonderful wackos who deserve a French kiss.

DIRECTOR’S STATEMENT

In a cinematic landscape largely populated by rigid archetypes, white male voices, and repeating storylines, Make Out Party offers a glimpse into a colorfully queered world in which the ‘outsider-as-main-character’ dynamic can exist without relying on socially-constructed difference or perceived ‘otherness’; they exist simply because they exist. In order to change the language and create new diverse and inclusive narratives, it is imperative to subvert traditional archetypes and stories.

Make Out Party examines sensuality/sexuality playfully, from an almost-PG-13 perspective. Sexuality in cinema is often demonized and censored, while violence is held in high regard or worse, normalized. Make Out Party challenges cinematic sexual taboos, highlighting this tension by glorifying the act of making out, an activity generally regarded as juvenile, impolite, or adolescent. However, this tension is turned into a joyous radical act by inviting all to participate, free from judgement or danger.

It is my hope is that Make Out Party will speak to all kinds of people. We need more cinema that puts characters we’re not used to seeing in front of the front of the camera lens. We need to re-work archetypes and challenge the status quo. Cinema is a powerful agent of change I believe can be used to radically upset the structures that be.

ABOUT THE CREATOR