Girls & The Party
2021 · 6m · USA
Directed by Paloma Lopez
Genres: coming-of-age, drama, LGBTQ+
Tones: tender
A group of girlfriends prepare for an anticipated summer party in a cramped bathroom. Between boy talk and makeup, Mercedes quietly navigates her blossoming attraction for one of her friends.
Picked by Zoe
The scouts
Six-minute single-bathroom queer-glance coming-of-age — clean constraint, modest scope, probably exactly what it advertises. Won't change my life but won't waste my time.
Lopez's six-minute single-bathroom queer-glance piece operates in the contained intimacy of Celine Sciamma's Water Lilies, and SOTW's 62K views suggest it lands. A modest but considered exercise.
5:35 entirely in one cramped bathroom, 62K views on SOTW — that confined-space discipline forces queer desire to communicate through glance and proximity instead of monologue, which is the exact craft constraint coming-of-age usually needs. Short, focused, and trusts the body language.
Reviews
López sensitively depicts a blossoming attraction through a slice-of-life narrative that surprises with its authenticity and palpable chemistry, leaving you wanting more.
Maya Delmont tears the house down in this economically told short film about fumbling!
Festivals
- Outfest Los Angeles LGBTQ+ Film Festival 2021, Grand Jury Prize for Best US Fiction Short
- BFI Future Film Festival 2021
- Aesthetica Short Film Festival
- NewFest
- Mecal International Short and Animation Film Festival
- Mostra FIRE!! Barcelona International LGBTQ Film Festival