By Kayla Morin
Where some see a mess, one young woman sees opportunity.
That's the essential pull of Housekeeping, a comedy short film directed by Chris Strikes of Callowgrove Entertainment, which makes its World Premiere at the 2016 Charlotte Film Festival (CFF), this Saturday, September 24th. The film is a part of the festival's Narrative Short Block #2 programming. It's positive messaging.
"I just like to create," says Strikes. "I like to create visuals that raise discussion and visuals that can inspire people. It can touch them emotionally, it can be a compelling story that's dramatic. Or it can just touch them comedically, as something that they want to watch, whenever they need a good laugh, because of whatever is going on in their day."
Housekeeping depicts a hotel housekeeper with a habit of frolicking with guests' belongings as she cleans their rooms, imagining herself in their lives, who discovers an unorthodox opportunity to actually change her life. Strikes first got the idea while staying in a boutique Montreal, Canada hotel last year. View trailer.
As he left for breakfast, Strikes crossed path with the housekeeper, a noticeably young woman for the profession. Usually a private man, Strikes was writing a feature film at the time and for some reason, that day, he recklessly left all his work out on the desk.
“I left my script out, the pages were loose, I left my laptop open, my script and my notes on it, I had these books around me, Hollywood Reporter magazines, all that stuff,” Strikes recalls.
It was at breakfast that Strikes got the idea. “I started thinking, ‘what if she went in my room and saw the script…’ ” he describes. The rest is history; Strikes wrote the first draft for the film that weekend, returned to Toronto and pulled a team together.
Housekeeping stars Madeleine Claude, Brandon Mcknight, and Alexandra Augustine and was produced by Strikes and Maya Bastian. The director of photography is Chris Morsby, and music is from composer Felix Arifin, with Ryan Singh on as associate producer.
"In this industry you never really create anything on your own," says Strikes, "really and truly, so when you have a group of people collectively come together to create in the best interests of a project, and even sometimes suggesting ideas that I never even thought of to better serve the purpose of the story. When you have that (...) it's a really beautiful feeling."
Based in Charlotte, North Carolina, CFF is a celebration of the most relevant independent movies of quality available from around the world. The festival's self-proclaimed mission is to "DISCOVER DIFFERENT", encouraging filmmakers and audience members to follow suit.
Tickets for Housekeeping are available at http://www.charlottefilmfestival.org
