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Estranged From Her Father For
Over A Decade
Ashley receives a call from her mother with the news that her father has passed away in a solo plane crash on the coasts of Jersey.
As Ashley desperately tries to piece together her father's death that is shrouded in mystery, she finds his obituary and discovers her father's other life and other family. Desperate for answers and closure, Ashley goes to Jersey to meet her father's family and is forced to face the past she so desperately tried to forget.
AS Ashley gets closer to her father's wife, she learns of his continued struggles of abuse, drugs, and deteriorating mental state that led him to take his own life. In her efforts to process these events Ashley finds a reflection of herself in her father's struggles with suicide as the trauma from her father takes hold of her once more.
Through the metaphorical imagery of water, Ashley goes on an emotional journey as she finds a new family, inherits the strength passed onto her by her mother, and ultimately finds salvation and forgiveness with the dead.
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A LOVE LETTER
To my Parents And self
During this time of my life, I've found myself overcome with a series of emotions I hardly knew how to process. And while I found myself in the middle of grief, I also found myself in some of the most profound moments of my life.
This film takes a visual metaphorical approach to my journey through these events. Due to my background as an illustrator-turned-filmmaker, and the importance of water during my father's death and baptism, I symbolize water throughout this film to portray the emotions experienced by the characters and the passing of time.
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While the film is extremely personal, I do not tell it just for myself. I tell it for everyone who has suffered or known someone who has suffered from abuse or a mental illness. This film speaks on those difficult times and tackles many themes of anger and desperation, but, in the end, I came to forgive my father which is the most freeing experience I have felt.
I tell this story in a way that leaves me raw and vulnerable. Yet, it's undeniably cathartic, and I know those who watch this can share in that experience.