Scarlet Begonias | 8 Beats Anthology
A young woman, suspected of being trafficked, is pulled from "the life" and forced to spend a weekend with a grieving father.
Scarlet Begonias was one of those rare scripts that when I first read it, I knew exactly who Jesse was. Something about her story and the way the script progressed simply clicked. I sent in my audition tape, and a few weeks later I was driving down to Louisiana to film.
We shot at a house in the middle of nowhere; it was an oddly peaceful setting for a story that, at its heart, is about moving through trauma. The film starts out with a darker palette brought about by mostly evening, interior shots. Then, as our two characters begin to move through their trauma — not leaving it behind, but taking the first, small steps towards healing — we transition into the greenhouse scene. The bright garden, inherently a place of growth, offers hope. While the revelation of the physical abuse Jesse has endured brings us back inside, the following scene leads to a moment of healing and a flicker of trust. As Jesse leaves her temporary haven at the end of the film, she is not too different from the girl she was when she arrived, but there’s a crack in her hard exterior where the tiniest seed of hope has taken root. We know the road ahead of her will not be easy, but we have faith that Jesse has the strength to keep going.
Our cast and crew have been overjoyed at the response to this project. Scarlet Begonias was one of eight installments of the 8 Beats Anthology. Each installment had a theme based on one of the beatitudes. Ours was: “Blessed are they who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be satisfied.” Far too often, people allow the idea of righteousness to lead them to judgment. We wanted to explore the idea that it is kindness and compassion — not judgment — that allow for healing, growth, and for our world to move forward.
Scarlet Begonias received Best Southern Short at the Southern States Film Festival and received multiple Awards of Excellence at the Southern Shorts Awards. Additionally, Scarlet Begonias was honored to have been accepted into the Cannes Film Festival Court Metrage Short Film Corner, the Film Collective, and the Azalea Film Festival.
