DIRECTOR'S NOTE

Before Alexander Gheesling and I co-wrote this story, we were greatly inspired by the Don DeLillo book Great Jones Street, about a burned out rock star in the ‘70s who retreats, in indefinite solitude, to his New York apartment for a much needed escape from rock star life, only to experience a series of surreal visitations and misadventures without ever really leaving. 

 

We modernized this character to one that made perfect sense to us - a young, queer SoundCloud rapper. Their location of escape became a treehouse in a bamboo forest. The rest is our own fever dream, with the central theme of accepting that it’s okay to be struggling, or in transition. We can allow ourselves the freedom to evolve, or to pursue a version of ourselves we find to be more truthful. 

 

As Andro Andro (played beautifully by Alexander) takes hiatus from their own rock star lifestyle, but has trouble adjusting to a new sort of stillness, I wanted the film to feel like the world is closing in on Andro; constantly moving, yet still frozen in place, like a candy-colored music video on a screen they can’t break out of. I was continuously inspired by the nonlinear editing of Nicolas Roeg’s films (particularly The Man Who Fell To Earth) and contemporary queer filmmakers like Gregg Araki.

 

The execution of these ideas wouldn’t have been possible without so many people. Thank you to our brilliant DP Nicholas Coogan, and to Collin Medford and Jonathan Peck for producing. Thank you to the rest of our incredible cast - Angela Wong Carbone, Heinley Gaspard, and Lambert Tamin.

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And thanks to you, for watching. I hope we can share another one of these with you very soon.

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All my best,

Corey Koepper