"I knew you would've killed me if I didn't do it first."

Welcome to the Bowery - into the manically loving world of Lottie and Mags. They’re in the middle of an argument, the same argument they have practically every night. Mags has been berating Lottie for hours, and Lottie is ready to give up to keep the peace the same as she always does.

To prove their devotion to each other, they decide to make their vows tonight in the form of matching tongue piercings. They seal their love with a drunken kiss in the alley way. Lottie looks into Mags’ eyes and knows this is forever.

Less than 24 hours later, Lottie bursts into her abandoned childhood home, alone. She turns on the shower. Soap mixes in with fresh wounds, month old bruises, and year old scars. She’s finally free. The TV blares of news about a missing girl, while Lottie packs a bowl. The evening twists through memories as Lottie explores her home, searching for herself in childhood diaries, her dad’s old records, and her mother’s beef bourguignon recipe.

A NOTE FROM GINNIE:

I wrote this story in a quarantine fever dream while blasting music that made me feel skintight connected to my queerness. There is nothing profound I am trying to say with Lottie, only that stories about queer people are allowed to be just that, stories. Not moral quandaries, not cautionary tales, not trauma porn, not sapphic yearning in corsets. Can’t there just be stories about femme little lesbians who after being pinned in femme little boxes are plotting some brutal way to escape out of how others see them? Lottie is a messy processing of how grief and abuse manifests, and if you followed every violent, terrifying, (and frighteningly) liberating intrusive thought or subliminal desire you had to the dead end. For me, the more I have been vulnerable about how twisted my mind can be - how much I love the bratty squeals of Riot Grrrl music or the way I like to watch my wounds infect then heal with delight and fascination - the more I have felt in touch with my queerness and myself. I want to tell this story in order to give into my fucked up fantasies for twenty odd minutes without being judged or diagnosed or read into. Lottie saved me in a lot of ways, and I believe she could save you too. 

3 FILMS IN 365 DAYS

So how (and why) did we decide to jump into the deep end and declare to make 3 films in 365 days??

All of this started when I asked Ally to help me bring my short stories to life. I felt that my odd trilogy following three women (and one kitten, but more on that later!!) who are discovering their purposes in the messiest, most human ways possible would thrive in a more visual medium. We already have proved that with our first film Tsundoku coming this spring, and gained a talented and dedicated crew of artists along the way.

Tsundoku was filmed with a tight crew and out of my pocket. A true passion project to prove that Ally and I have what it takes to do the damn thing and produce something that not only looks beautiful (thanks Myles!) but a story and a world that makes people feel seen in the crooked, overgrown parts of themselves.

If we wanted people to feel seen with Tsundoku, we want to throw on all the searchlights and make you feel exposed with LOTTIE. By pushing the boundaries of what Horror has been expected to look or feel like, and throwing ourselves into relishing our darkest thoughts instead of being repulsed by them, we can break through the tired tropes and stories we have all learned to scroll past. As far fetched as the events of LOTTIE may seem, every person I have explained Lottie's love and motivations to has fully understood where she's coming from, even if they really don't want to. I want to scare you. I want to turn you on. I want you to be afraid of how much you get it, how much you enjoy what you're seeing. Not for exploitation or pure entertainment, but because you are finally being seen for the totality, the beautiful brutality of you - without judgement, but with welcoming arms. That complexity is what is missing in most movies today, and we at Bee F^#%!ng Nice Productions are dedicated to joining the pioneering artists that want to see a radical change in filmmaking. Having abandon for boundaries of genre, cinematic styles, or any constricting expectations in our filmmaking is a must. And in order to do that, we need your help.

HOW WE'LL TELL OUR STORY:

LOTTIE is a slice-of-life story that just happens to be about a girl who isn't exactly the inspiring hero we think about when picturing our favorite protagonists. Through gory, uncomfortable imaging, and disorienting, rule breaking lighting - bound with the inner thoughts and pages of Lottie's journals - we will immerse you into the world of a traumatized, hurt, and confused young woman who only wanted to love so large that she took it too far.

SYNOPSIS

After a long 24 hours, LOTTIE returns home. It is clear that it's been a while. Over the next hours into the morning, Lottie spends time reflecting, smoking weed, and tending to her wounds. A thick layer of dust covering the home suggests she's alone in the house, save for her only companion whom she brought with her, Cat.

She enters her old bedroom, where Riot Grrrl posters are peeling at the corners and an untouched funeral dress hangs on the open door of the closet. Lottie begins to write in her old journal, untouched since she abandoned this home over a decade ago after her parents' funeral. Except this time, Lottie's entries seem less like her earlier musings on the day, and more of an open letter to the very person who gave her these wounds in the first place.

Lottie, running away from demons in the dark who aren't there, begins blaring her father's old records and gets lost in a memory from only a few hours before.

Mags, violently arguing with Lottie for the third night in a row- their normal as of late- demands an act of devotion. Lottie without question follows her to the 24 hour piercing parlor where they perform their untraditional marriage, too inebriated to care about the judging glances from the store owner.

They drag each other into the nearby alleyway where they begin to consummate their vows to each other. Lottie decides to perform the ultimate act of dedication. She tightens her hands around Mags' throat until the light drains from her eyes, crystalizing their love forever.

Suddenly we're back at the lakehouse, and Lottie is getting off on what she has done for love. The TV repeats the desperate search for a girl named Mags, presumed dead. Ravenous, Lottie goes to the kitchen to make her mother's beef bourguignon recipe with the meat she brought from the city. Eating the meal reveals a long lost memory of when Lottie was a girl. One where she is also eating Beef Bourguignon, while listening to her parents speculate Lottie's mental state and motivations.

Back in the present - Lottie reveals her true self. As she manically dances her final opus, we hear police sirens pierce through her music.

VISUAL AESTHETIC AND THE WORLD OF LAVENDER LILY

"You slip some cruel kiss inside me, one where I can equip my tongue to paint your limbs lavender lily. The phrase keeps coming to me since I saw you last."

Lottie is haunted by the phrase lavender lily, a phrase that evokes an array of imagery and memories for her and the viewer. As we trek down the winding path of Lottie's mind, we discover what lavender lily truly means, and this is accomplished through our highly stylized visual aesthetic. From the more grounded world of Lottie's childhood home, to the deeply saturated and hyper femme atmosphere of Mags and Lottie's city life, our project aims to rely on visual storytelling to guide the audience through Lottie's twisted self love journey.