AWKWARD GOODBYES

At its heart, Awkward Goodbyes is a crash course in rushed connections and a warning against the inflated optimism and hollow commitments made by lonely people. The idea is rooted in the symptom of hope that I believe exists in the very millennial idea that extraordinary is always possible, that we are beyond the limits of circumstance, and that there is an abundance of options to which we should never settle for “less”. In the seeking of fairy tale endings and valuing big emotions and grand gestures ahead of normal we have inadvertently created a generation of people ill-equipped to find true connection.

For the tone of the film, I was drawn to the uneasy space between absurdity and reality, where heightened emotion becomes comedy because it is uncomfortably true. It was a fine line to straddle but my goal was to create an emotional rollercoaster for the audience that mirrored the characters’ experience.

Central to my mission as a filmmaker is creating new narratives for women and minority voices. In this film we feature diverse characters and relationships that exist outside of the status quo, bringing to life a female protagonist who is driven by self-interest, a trait rarely afforded women in film and a Punjabi man whose character is informed, not centered, by his identity.