HENPECKED is a post-modern western about a woman who goes on a petty theft crime spree to cope with the financial and emotional abuse heaped on her by her mother. Her spree comes to a violent climax when her attempt to scam a vape shop owner is interrupted by two young men vying for attention on the internet. 

 

Henpecked is visually influenced by classic westerns such as “The Good, The Bad and The Ugly” and “A Fistful of Dollars”, but it’s story and tone has roots in anxiety soaked films like Jane Campion’s iconic short film “Peel”, Joel Schumacher’s prescient feature “Falling Down” and more recently, the Safdie brothers feature “Good Time”.

Henpecked uses our contemporary connection with cloud media to create a world where the main characters have no internal monologues, only exterior motivations. Episodes of a wellness Podcast serve as a Narrator to the action, interspersed with voicemails from the main character’s abusive mother. By engaging virtual motivations to demonstrate the power of media, Henpecked shows the power propaganda has in our lives to overwrite our free will. In other words, the medium is the message. 

Financially minded people might refer to this little short film I'm making as a “passion project” but I take umbrage with such an easily dismissable characterization. Instead I prefer to think of what I’m doing as a start-up - the first of many films which place social commentary and real filmmaking techniques at the forefront.  It's a brand of filmmaking in its infancy that holds a few tenants as sacred: 

1) Curation over algorithm  - there is no world in which I need chat gpt to write a film.  

2) Community creates style - building compelling characters cannot be done through market research or committee- it’s done through tight observation and an obstinate point of view. My point of view is created by the community I deeply love and who supports me in return. This community needs a stage. I’m willing to try to make one and share it.

3) Success is a byproduct of being focused on the work-  I have difficulty as an artist with the long reaching discussions of ROÍ but not because I’m uncomfortable with numbers and as a Virgo I’m definitely not uncomfortable with plans- what bothers me is that planning for an outcome based on a marketing budget detracts from the work to be done to make something excellent. My job is to make something excellent.

All of this is to say that if you have any interest in supporting this style of filmmaking, Henpecked is a great investment.  Every single Producer on this film is a woman that believes in what this project can do, and I'm honored to be held up on their shoulders.

 

About Emily Weston (Co-Writer/Director/Producer): I am a career film worker who in the last few years has committed to changing the trajectory of my life by creating my own work and building an independent film community in New Orleans. Henpecked is a step towards feature filmmaking.