Incest doesn’t have to be a life sentence, however its impact can be devastating, not only for the survivor but for the survivor’s partner as well. f my c is about Brianne and Daisy, and their journey for sexual intimacy set against the backdrop of childhood trauma. It’s about turning a difficult past into a meaningful present and future. It’s about giving name and value to the countless survivors and partners who struggle in silence to heal.
Told in a non-linear fashion, this character-driven short visualizes the state of mind of an incest survivor, and also symbolically expresses the concept that our behavior today is often rooted in experiences of the past.
How far would you go to make peace with your past? Brianne, a survivor of childhood sexual abuse, confronts this question head-on. Her perpetrator, her mother, controlled her daughter’s world with words. At times words are just words, until we attribute meaning. Other times, words carry tremendous authority and power. This is especially poignant when they are expressed in what is supposed to be an intimate and safe setting. In either case, it is an individual’s right to reclaim the experiences of these words, and to rename them. An original screenplay, the graphic language of the film was chosen to reinforce the concept that the same word can be perceived as harmful or healing depending on the context in which it is spoken. And the language choice also serves to demonstrate the depth of raw outrage against incest and its devastation.
However, buried in the devastation of incest, is hope. For Brianne, that means connecting the past with her present life, it means walking away from the dogma that hides her truth, and entering into faith. Her partner Daisy has experienced her own grief. A survivor of her mother’s domestic violence, she buries her pain by focusing on others. Her dysfunction, although more subtle, is there and eventually surfaces.
Brianne and Daisy love each other. They struggle to stay close. They struggle to express the sexual freedom they deserve. f my c is not about the victimization, it is about the survivors, and their choice to recover. It is a universal theme- the journey for intimacy; one that can be especially difficult for survivors and partners. The healing process is not just about stepping inside, but also stepping out into the living. And for Brianne and Daisy, the ending isn’t a perfect one, but it’s a beginning.