Included with

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  Asian She - Competitive Mourning

Director John Cheney

John Cheney's films have screened at festivals across the world, including LA Shortsfest, Kerry International Film Festival, and Crossroads Film Festival. A consummate storyteller, Cheney is the author of the novels City of Spies and The Apocalypse Men, as well as several short stories. John Cheney earned a Master of Fine Arts in Film Directing from Chapman University. He is an adjunct professor of Film and Humanities at Utah Valley University.

Director Statement

Nightmares can have all sorts of effects on our waking life. They might cause us to lock all the deadbolts, hug a loved one tighter, or even seek therapy. Mine drive me to create. "Sirin" is the second project (following my second novel) directly inspired by my dreams. In March 2019, I awoke from a dream so unique it has stayed with me since. In the dream, something that I--and most of us in the modern world--rely on not only turned unreliable, but malevolent. The dream was so visceral that I have taken some of the dialogue and imagery straight from that vision.
During the process of post-production, the world turned on its head. I started to wonder, what good is a film about nightmares if our world is representing a nightmare now? But the journey of Maggie, the protagonist in the film, is one where everything she has relied on for convenience, comfort, and understanding of her world is stripped away. If she's ever to get out of her predicament, she'll have to rely on herself. In that sense, "Sirin" is very much a film of our time.