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SPRAY BOTTLE

Short Film – Atlanta – 2023 – 10 min – Color | English | 1.90 | 5.1

imdb | website

LOGLINE

An angry former stunt woman struggles as a caregiver for her neurodivergent brother. Spray Bottle is about their worst day.

TRAILER

LASER PIGEON PICTURES presents

a HOCA STUDIO production

a WAX&WANE FILMS production

CAST & CREW

written and directed by Jenna Kanell

produced by Thang Ho, Sean Valdivieso

executive producer Jason Reitman

starring Jenna Kanell, Vance Kanell

cinematography Kristian Zuniga

production design Erin Day

editing Raymond Wood

post-production sound One Thousand Birds

DIRECTOR’S STATEMENT

I've known since childhood that I'll eventually assume the role of my brother's sole caregiver. So when a filmmaker I admire urged me to write an action comedy I could direct, act, and stunt in, I looked no further than the abundant absurdity of my fears. Fears of financial instability, of protecting my brother, of whether I'm enough, of navigating a world that wasn't really designed for either of us. Life itself is terrifying. And ridiculous.

Then I immersed myself in the action genre to unearth what was missing. We see very few action heroes who aren't assassins or a product of the military. There don't exist many action films helmed by women. Every so often we're treated to a well-rounded female action hero, but most are defined by their conventional beauty, their strong sense of motherhood, their lovers, or their rapists. Even rarer still are differently-abled main characters, especially ones played by actual members of the community. Those that do make it to the screen typically either display well known physical challenges easily visible to the naked eye, or are some kind of superhuman savante. My brother has a total of eight disorders, but more importantly, he's authentic and quirky and charming and kind. I'll never forget the way he watched some of his performance on the monitor and exclaimed, "it's so cool to see myself on screen."

The best part of filmmaking is watching the story take flight off the page, little by little, as each addition to the team hopped on board to bring it to life in a new way. I'm still floored at the range of talents and diversity of voices who believed in this, and continue to. Our cast and crew took on the challenge of finding the humor and the fun, creating movement, and exploring the possibility in each moment, all while guiding a pair of siblings as they arc from obligation to belonging.

The future's still uncertain, except for one piece: together, we've made something pretty special.

AWARDS & RECOGNITION

2023 Film Impact Georgia Finalist

2023 Vanishing Angle Post Grant Winner

BEHIND THE SCENES

captured by Rachel Lanquist, Ysa Lopez