Directed by Tempest Creation

Co-Written by Aviva and Tempest Creation

Produced by Trey Jordan

We are raising an additional $5,000 to close the funding gap for this project which is already 70% funded.

Concrete Garden is an eerie dive into the murky waters of memory, featuring a mix of grave solemnity and cathartic comedy. The film is a surreal dramedy about grappling with personal and historical trauma through fantasy.

After Chrysalis wakes from her vaginoplasty, she begins to remember moments from her childhood she would rather forget. Her friend Zenia, a notable painter, is late to visit her in the hospital. Preoccupied by a mysterious recording on a cassette tape, Zenia finally arrives only to find Chrysalis furious and spiraling.

Together Chrysalis and Zenia clash, confronting long-harboured resentments. Refusing to take care of Chrysalis during her recovery, Zenia storms out of the ward. Zenia reflects on the recordings within the cassette tape, finding sympathy for Chrysalis. She brings Chrysalis home to her apartment which has transformed into an opulent garden.

For my sister Aviva and I, 2025 was a year of surgeries. After Trump's election everything became a healthcare scramble. We waited each day to hear if the government had banned gender affirming care from public healthcare resources. Getting notes from therapists, begging doctors to push the surgery dates up. This was the first year since the beginning of my transition I had put this amount of energy into becoming passable. And right before Aviva got her vagina done, we decided to write a vaginoplasty film to commemorate.

Aviva and I lived together for two years in an apartment in Ridgewood. We were roommates and, after I lost contact with my biological family, became chosen sisters. An alliance which solidified via estrogen injections and progesterone. We had each other no matter. The film ends with Zenia's apartment transformed into a garden. This was our apartment, a refuge and safe place to be ourselves, to be trans without judgement or ridicule, and a space to recover our transitioning bodies. This film is about how we found home within each other and learned to love ourselves by loving one another. The garden in the film represents the flourishing of our care and reciprocity, no matter the circumstances.

Chrysalis

mid-20s, White, trans woman. Since childhood, Chrysalis has been distrustful of others, pursuing a life of isolation. self-destructive relationships and impulse. Instead of preparing for her vaginoplasty, Chrysalis has focused on impressing her withering ex-boyfriend.

Zenia

mid-20s, POC, trans woman. Zenia, a Bronx-native, has learned excellence as a means of survival. Her intellect and people skills have opened up a white cisgender world, where despite being tokenized she’s able to advance her career in the arts.

Emilio

30s, cis man. Married at a young age, Emilio’s life has been relatively standard. Bored and sexless he entertains himself and his patients with quick witted humor. His recent reassignment to the vaginoplasty ward has peaked his interest in exploring outside of his marriage.

In the US and internationally trans healthcare is under attack. The most recent attempt to remove gender affirming care from public healthcare systems led to the longest government wide shutdown in US history. I felt the effects of this shutdown and other attacks reverberate throughout the trans community, particularly for those of us who rely on public healthcare systems to access life saving procedures.

Over the past year my community and I have been hyper focused on receiving these procedures while we still have access to them. In Concrete Garden, Chrysalis has been placed in a similar dilemma. Rushing into her vaginoplasty procedure, she is ill-equipped for the recovery process. She hasn’t even confirmed where she will stay after the surgery. The film critiques not just the healthcare system which lacks post-surgery care but also the intersecting emotional, familial, justice and economic systems which forces trans people into precarious situations. Zenia’s experience with police violence and employment discrimination has pushed her to tokenize herself in her career, leading her to drive other trans women around her, like Chrysalis, away. These interlocking injustices result in the central conflict of the film, in which Chrysalis solely relies on Zenia for her post-surgery care, while Zenia is completely emotionally unprepared.

Production Timeline

Principal Photography: July 10 -12

Offline Editing: July 18 - Aug 8

Finishing Elements: Aug 9 - Sept 1

Thank you!