How can we find strength and love within ourselves when society opposes it? Ella Skye Klaerner strives to answer this and more in her upcoming film, (Re)birth, an exploration of love and femininity in its purest form.

(Re)birth is an experimental short film about how femininity transforms, and Venus is forced to reshape herself until her demise and once again in her rebirth; the fusion of love and its consequences can make or break her, but what if she used it to break free?

Venus is born too soon, clawed out before her time. Resultantly, she is captured by The Lover on a moonlit beach and swallowed into his world. Venus wishes to be back inside the womb she was taken from, to allow herself to form fully. She finds freedom by the ocean, and she is impregnated with her new life. She emerges from the ocean, reborn from her own womb as she was meant to be. She’s free to love like she was created to.

Director's Statement

The experience of being a woman in love with a man can be an excruciating one. Beyond romantic love, tying oneself to a man as a woman is a part of life: our fathers, our brothers, our partners, our sons. Historically, women are taught to sacrifice themselves to elevate the men around them. Men are taught to be entitled to women, to their bodies, to their minds, and to their freedom. Our suffering must be beautiful and our pain silent.

At the age of seventeen, while attending my boarding high school in Southern California, I wrote a relatively tame article about the experience of misogyny and the upholding of rape culture on campus, particularly at the hands of young boys who were unchecked by the higher-ups. I got sexually harassed, received threatening phone calls, and even the headmaster of the school at the time was speaking poorly about me to male students. My article was quoted in the Montecito Journal, and I was asked to comment by the LA Times on a report about the long history of sexual assault at my high school. Luckily, I had the support of women and other allies, but ever since then, I’ve hesitated to explore gender and the patriarchy in a meaningful way. This piece allows me to delve back into that, and even though I’m a bit afraid, I know that’s what comes with true vulnerability.

Artistic Approach

Inspired by James Bidgood’s Pink Narcissus and Sergei Parajanov’s The Color of Pomegranates, through a trilogy of living-painting recreations of Titian’s Bacchus and Ariadne, Bernini’s Ecstasy of St. Teresa, and Botticelli’s The Birth of Venus, in addition to text on-screen original poems and a voice-over of my own journal entry that inspired the foundation of the script, the story of Venus is one of love and self-discovery on a cellular level.

Funding

While $5450 is the minimum amount we need to bring our film to life, additional funds — a stretch goal — would afford us superior filmmaking capabilities and ensure that (Re)Birth reaches the widest audience possible.

Here is what an expanded budget will achieve:

• Raising $8,000 would enhance the film's visual capabilities, opening the door to superior rentals and anything else our dedicated camera team requires to devising the aesthetic cadence of (Re)Birth
• Raising $10,000 would expand the post-production reach of (Re)Birth, investing in a coordinated and far-reaching festival campaign
• Raising $12,000 would allow us to fairly compensate our cast/crew (all collaborators are currently giving their time for free, simply out of passion for the project)
• Raising over $12,000 would combat unforeseen costs and help launch future filmmaking endeavors

Other Ways to Help

FOLLOW our campaign on Seed & Spark! Growing followers unlocks access to products, services, and festival fee waivers courtesy of Seed & Spark.

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