As You Are
2023 · 15m · USA
Directed by Daisy Friedman
Genres: drama, LGBTQ+, romance
Tones: melancholic, tender
An interabled queer couple spends the night together for the first time, confronting their complex relationships with desire, sexuality, and bodily autonomy as an awkward moment disrupts their chemistry and reveals deeper vulnerabilities.
Picked by Margot
The scouts
Interabled queer couple's first night, black-and-white 4:3. Director is a multi-organ transplant recipient. That's the kind of authorship I trust — it's also a register where reverence sometimes flattens the film. Cautiously curious.
Friedman's interabled queer romance, shot in black-and-white 4:3 by a multi-organ transplant recipient — Outfest Special Mention, Frameline's Colin Higgins, Superfest's Best of Festival — this is the rare disability film that arrives from inside rather than outside. The formal restraint is well-placed.
Black-and-white 4:3 is the deliberate formal containment for an interabled queer intimacy scene, by a director who's a multi-organ transplant recipient — the lived authority shows in the choice to make it formally austere rather than expressively naturalistic. Outfest Grand Jury mention, Superfest Best of Festival.
Reviews
Writer/director Daisy Friedman crafts a beautiful and raw film centered around honesty and vulnerability, with characters who are not often seen on screen, nor depicted in such mundane situations.
Frameline Voices' 'As You Are' explores a refreshing queer love story with an interabled couple, presenting a meaningful portrayal of disability and intimacy rarely seen on screen.
Festivals
- Outfest Los Angeles LGBTQ+ Film Festival 2023, Grand Jury Prize Special Mention
- Frameline Film Festival 2023, Colin Higgins Youth Foundation Grant
- NewFest 2023, NYWIFT Emerging Filmmaker Award
- Inside Out Film Festival
- Chicago International Film Festival
- National Film Festival for Talented Youth