“My first evening in Club Quarantine, I kept my camera off. I was anxious about having my face broadcast to hundreds of strangers on the internet. But quickly that fear was replaced with awe; I attended the party each evening and increasingly became comfortable with my camera on. Whenever I logged onto Club Quarantine, hundreds of beautiful, brightly lit boxes twinkled at me. As a young queer person coming into my own identity, gay clubs have been my refuge. In college I would frequent a predominantly Latinx gay club in Pomona, Calif., called 340. There I experienced a sense of ease and safety that I could not find elsewhere. My friends and I grew into ourselves in that club. When the pandemic began, I found similar comfort in Club Quarantine. Historically, nightlife has been one of the few safe spaces for the queer community. It is no surprise that in this time of devastation, queer people have once again sought community in the club, albeit a virtual one. The nightly parties lasted for nearly four months, and in June 2020 they came to an end. Club Quarantine still exists, but the parties happen weekly now. As life begins to creep back to normal, I feel nostalgic for that time. In the midst of such intense isolation, my life came alive each evening as I was absorbed in a glittering world of queer people all seeking to connect.”

Aurora Brachman is an award-winning documentary filmmaker drawn to stories about intimate relationships within families and communities. Her film Club Quarantine, about a virtual queer dance party, premiered on the New York Times Op-Docs. And her short documentary, Joychild, about a young gender-expansive child, was acquired by The New Yorker, broadcast on POV, and shortlisted for an IDA Award. Her work has screened at numerous festivals including Sundance, True/False, Hot Docs, AFI Docs, DOC NYC, and selected for Vimeo Staff Picks. Aurora primarily makes work about the experiences of Black, brown, and Queer people and is committed to collaborative and ethical storytelling. Aurora is a graduate of the MFA program in Documentary Film at Stanford University, a 2020 Sundance Ignite Fellow, and a 2022 SFFilm House Resident. She is also the recipient of a Fulbright Scholarship in filmmaking. She currently works as a producer for A24.

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“I first became interested in mass incarceration and problems with the American justice system after volunteering with a soccer team that played against men housed at San Quentin State Prison in California. I was inspired by many of those men and the inmate-run programs they have developed in an effort to maintain their humanity in the face of a violent and toxic system. This experience prompted me to learn more about the history of mass incarceration and the prison abolition movement led in part by professor and activist Angela Davis. I began to notice that many images of incarcerated people in the media reinforce old stereotypes and entrenched systems of power – and I sought to make a film that would counter those images. Although the US has developed a prison-industrial complex that has locked up more people than any other nation on earth, many Americans remain disconnected from the communities most impacted by that system. I hope that art and film can connect otherwise disjointed communities and shine some light on the broken system we’ve built.”

Originally from Sudbury, MA, Ted Griswold earned a BA in Latin American and Iberian Cultures from Columbia University in 2010. He then went to teach English in Honduras, where he was inspired to film his first documentary, Olancho. In 2020 he earned an MFA in Documentary Film and Video from Stanford University, where he directed four short documentaries that explore the relationship between masculinity, violence and the performance of each. He now lives in Long Beach, CA with his partner and a charm of hummingbirds.

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“I made this film because I’m sober and I wanted to share aspects of my experience with others. I found the process of understanding my alcoholism (as well as other addiction-related behavior) to be incredibly lonely. The only depiction of alcoholism and addiction I’d seen was extreme; and while that, of course, is the unfortunate experience of many, mine was more “hidden” in plain sight. It felt both accepted by binge drinking culture and shamed by friends and family at the same time. I spent 10 years of my life caught in the shame, depression, and loneliness of drinking and only found relief through sobriety and hearing other people’s stories. I wanted to write something in the hopes of helping someone else and creating space for conversation. Coming to Terms was the result.”

With a background in documentary television, Kait Gallagher focuses on storytelling rooted in the human experience. She uses character-driven stories to explore social-issue-related themes. Her debut narrative short, Coming to Terms, has screened at LA Shorts, Awareness Film Fest, California Women’s Film Fest and premiered online with Omeleto.

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“I think too often society closes the book on minorities who are suffering. Too often are we cast off as drunks, thieves, and savages but we are real people with real stories and real strength. I would encourage people to watch my film if they want to see a true story of a young Indigenous man who bounced back and turned those stereotypes on their head.”

Trevor Solway, Sinakson, is a Blackfoot filmmaker from Siksika Nation. Trevor attended the Independent Indigenous Digital Filmmaking program at Capilano University in 2012. He then graduated from Mount Royal University with his Bachelor’s of Communications in 2017. In 2020 Trevor was a recipient of the Mount Royal University Alumni Award for his early career success. Trevor has self-produced and directed various short narratives and documentaries that have screened at Calgary International Film Festival, ImagineNATIVE Arts and Media Festival, and Big Sky Documentary Film Festival.

Trevor is the founder of The Napi Collective, a mentorship filmmaking society based in Siksika. From 2018-2020 Trevor mentored eighteen emerging indigenous filmmakers from his community to write, direct, shoot and edit four narrative films, which screened in their community and abroad at Indigenous film festivals such as the American Indian Film Festival, LA Skins, and Moariland Film Festival.

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“I began making the film out of curiosity – to not only know more about the effects PTSD can have on a person and their family, but to also find out if there was a connection between Guy’s struggles and his passion for all things Disney. I learned Guy’s lifelong fascination with Disney was not only centered around its innocence and warmth, but has been a constant source of his own self-worth and motivation. By surrounding himself with Disney, he’s also able to enter a place that allows him to escape loneliness and the negative thought patterns that can occur in isolation.”

Brent Bandemer is a Chicago-based filmmaker and freelance editor who discovered documentary filmmaking while attending Columbia College Chicago. He believes in using film to give the underrepresented a voice, and to allow the viewer to empathize with them in a thoughtful and honest way.

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Bridey Elliott is an actress, writer and director. After graduating from the National Theater Institute at Eugene O’Neill Center, she became a regular at the Upright Citizens Brigade Theater. Bridey starred in the 2014 SXSW Grand Jury Prize winner Fort Tilden and appeared in Battle of The Sexes starring Emma Stone, as well as Steven Soderbergh’s “Mosaic” series for HBO. Her directorial debut, the short comedy “Affections”, premiered at the 2016 Sundance Film Festival, and was part of the 2016 Sundance Shorts Tour.

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“Now, with many countries on lockdown and people isolated at home, the issue of loneliness has never felt more relevant. Before the pandemic I had been researching the issue of loneliness for a year and have worked closely with charities in London that offer befriending services to lonely people. I came across a number of different stories, this is one of them.

We are social beings; the need to connect with others is at the heart of what it means to be human. In these strange times across the world the current pandemic has meant that countless people, forced into social isolation for their own good, are, perhaps for the first time in their life, suffering from a sense of isolation and loneliness.

Loneliness has always been with us, it is not a new problem; in an age of increased tech, smaller communities and increased isolation it is an experience that many already endure.

At the start of 2019, interested in this issue, I volunteered for a charity that matched befrienders with people experiencing loneliness. I was keen to help out, but also in telling the stories of some of these pairings and making a film with a focus on an unusual pair that transcended backgrounds, genders and races, enabling the piece to reach as wide an audience as possible.

This film follows two individuals who, even before the current pandemic, have experienced acute loneliness. We will see how, through reaching out and connecting with others, they overcame it, providing timely inspiration for those at home going through their own experience of loneliness.”

Liam Saint-Pierre is a filmmaker of documentaries, music videos and commercials, who is always on the lookout for compelling stories in strange places. He was born in Blackburn, in the north of England and with a desire to tell stories, he began making films. Initially this was in documentaries, but a focus on narrative has translated into other forms.

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