An all-nighter at the office goes nightmarishly wrong when an overworked attorney is forced into a deadly game of hide-and-seek with his literal inner demon. A Korean-American story of filial piety, identity and mental health. Think Black Swan meets Pan's Labyrinth.

Gabriel Park, a junior associate at a top NYC litigation firm, gave up his passion for acting long ago. Although he has tried to put his artistic ambitions behind him, he still holds onto a small collection of souvenirs from his acting career, including a neutral mask which displays in his office. One night, after realizing how much work he still has left, he calls his mother to let her know he’ll be out late. We learn over the phone that Gabriel’s mother is unwell and that he has chosen a legal career in order to support her. Upon returning to his office, he is startled to find his neutral mask missing, only to discover it is a prank by his coworker, Evan. The two colleagues share an intimate moment — which a mortified (and closeted) Gabriel cuts short.

The evening takes a sinister turn when Gabriel, after accidentally cutting his finger with a boxcutter, discovers the mask missing yet again. Instead of Evan, a pale, humanoid creature reveals itself as the thief, and chases Gabriel through the office building. With no one but himself to save the day, will Gabriel manage to pull through? And exactly who or what is the creature behind the mask?

Writer's Statement

This script is more than a little autobiographical - I spent three years working as a paralegal at a Manhattan litigation firm, and I had plans to put my artistic ambitions aside in favor of the kind of financially secure lifestyle that my mother wanted for me. (To this day, she wastes no time in reminding me over the phone what a great lawyer I’d be, and how handsome I’d look all suited up in court). But between the grueling days that I saw the associates and partners putting in week after week, and my own sense that a little more of me died with each day spent away from my craft, I came to better understand what was truly important to me.The concept for this piece came to me in bits, over countless nights of overtime. I was often the only person left in the office, and the overhead fluorescents and oppressive silences always left me unsettled. It was an uncanny purgatory of sorts, and by 1 or 2AM, I was losing all sense of time, reality, and self. Where was I? What was I doing? Just what was I sacrificing to be here? Did I hear something moving in the shadows, or did I just need some sleep? After a while I would start to imagine that I was, in fact, not alone in the office — but I was never sure if it was some sort of monster, or my own demons. And thus, this script was conceived.

In the entertainment industry we talk a big game about representation, but the fact remains that even with so many huge milestones for Asians, we’re still not all that represented in day-to-day casting. We are simply not a major presence in the industry - or in the arts at all - because our parents are so quick to push us into careers in finance, medicine, tech, etc. Not only that, but we are discouraged from being expressive, sensitive, or even emotional. And while it would be easy to just rage against the injustice of such rigid parenting, we also have to acknowledge that it comes from a place of care. And it’s at this intersection where Tal found its inspiration - this convergence of love, duty, and self-actualization. 

The story of Tal is a meditation on what my life would have almost certainly looked like had I committed to this little death, and on what many children of immigrants experience every day.

Director's Statement

Tal explores themes of filial piety, identity, and mental health. Gabriel exists on a fault line between two identities - an openly queer artist in pursuit of his own passions, and the faithful son dutifully living out his mother’s dreams. His chilling encounter with a creature—representing the aspects of himself he has suppressed, including his sexuality, desires, and ambitions—highlights the inner turmoil stemming from his dual life. By mixing horror with an intimate personal drama, I hope to use the genre to explore deep psychological issues in a visceral way.

The duality between Gabriel and the creature illustrates the conflict between his true desires and the life he’s been pressured into by his obligations to his mother. The horror elements reflect how genuinely frightening it can be to look inward and confront one’s own truths. Gabriel's confrontation with this creature underscores the destructive consequences of denying integral parts of one’s identity.

ISOLATION & ALIENATION

The setting of the film, predominantly taking place in an empty office building at night, highlights Gabriel's isolation. This physical isolation mirrors his emotional detachment from his own desires and those who care about him, such as his mother.

“There are three masks: the one we think we are, the one we really are, and the one we have in common” Jacques Lecoq

Korean masks called tal (탈) were used in war, on both soldiers and their horses; ceremonially, for burial rites in jade and bronze and for shamanistic ceremonies to drive away evil spirits, to remember the faces of great historical figures, and in the arts, particularly in ritual dances, courtly, and theatrical plays.

The Neutral Mask, which Gabriel displays in his office, revolves around the idea of universal humanity – a shared pool of emotional states and feelings that go beyond personality and individual background. Working with the Neutral Mask we ask two essential questions “Who is a human being before they put on the mask of a character?” and “What all human beings have in common?”

Given Gabriel's background in acting, a profession that revolves around illusion and portrayal of different identities, the film plays with the blurred lines between reality and illusion. The mask, a symbol of acting, becomes a central element in this theme, questioning what is real and what is a facade in both his personal and professional life.

We are scheduled to shoot over three days in MAY 2024. We need to raise funds for the above expenses. We have high ambitions for this film and want to tell a quality story while taking care of the team working on set.

With your help getting through production, we aim for TAL to be represented at various genre festivals and midnight short blocks in the 2024-2025 festival season. We also intend to secure public distribution through platforms like NoBudge, Short of the Week, and ALTER. We've built a team of talented artists, and we plan to develop TAL into a feature film following a successful festival run.

You can watch our last collaboration, VERSACE SOFTBOI exclusively on Film Shortage.

Your financial support for TAL  goes beyond the film itself — you're making an investment in our team of artists and their hard work and talents.

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