CEMENT explores the melancholy of a night out—the residue of craving and dissatisfaction that, no matter how small and inconsequential, always surfaces by morning. Co-writer Chili Shi and I wrote a script that refracted this sentiment through the character of Hazel, the pragmatic but disaffected owner of Cement, a waning techno club that comes to be the staging ground for a collision between art, business, and unfulfilled desire. Over the course of one night, Hazel's rabid insecurities—the feeling of always being “elsewhere," and of retreating into the mercenary tasks of work instead of negotiating the primal muck of interpersonal relationships—all come to a head. By the film’s end, Hazel’s character arrives at a moment of reckoning: where time stands still and her own jealousy comes to merge with the lonely beauty of her subjectivity.

The Shoot

We shot CEMENT in May 2024 over the course of two and a half days in New York City. We shot the majority of the film at Gabriela, a beautiful new club founded by electronic music luminary Eli Escobar. Back in December 2023 when Chili and I first started drafting the script, we knew we wanted the film to reflect a fidelity and attention to detail that is so often overlooked in other music dramas. With the help of a talented core of creative collaborators, this became a reality.

Producer Ola Mania spearheaded this strategy, working tirelessly throughout prep to creatively produce and arrange the pieces needed to bring CEMENT to life. Director of Photography Stefan Nachmann and Gaffers Emmet Luciano and Ethan Langenau contributed a robust visual strategy, using digital DMX mapping to power the club's lights across a variety of setups. Production Designer Fan Yu fabricated an immense variety of posters, stickers, and other ephemera, making Cement appear as a lived-in and fading club. Music Supervisor Council Brandon lent her effervescent techno as well as her mixing expertise throughout prep and on set, ensuring that all music written into the script was played and properly synced while we shot. Makeup Artist and Wardrobe Stylist Brianna Chin created an array of scene-specific looks for each actor, and Production Mixers Elias Rivera and Rhea Li lent their attentive ears to ensure we captured a precise sonic environment. Rounding out our crew was a cadre of talented Columbia MFA students, each one of whom wa selflessly invested in the success of the project. And at the center of this entire world was a core of five amazing actors—Hillary Sproul, Bart Elliott, Janelle Yull, Cashton Tate Rehklau, and Tut Gregory—each of whom explored a dimensionality in their respective characters that I didn't think was possible.

The Footage

The Next Steps

With production complete, we are looking to raise funds for post-production. As alluded to above, the film's creative strategy extends through post-production. First, we will hire an editor capable of expanding the film's experiential and expressionistic qualities (most crucially in the film's climax, where sound and image merge and intensely reflect character subjectivity). Once we lock picture, we will then invite a colorist and sound designer to help expand the film's scope, texture, and musicality. We hope to complete post-production by winter 2025, in order to target a festival premiere by the end of 2025.