Writer/director Lauren Palmigiano is making a big splash with her new short film, Cried Suicide. Nicol Paone plays Jay, a woman so heartbroken (and desperate for attention) after breaking up with her girlfriend that she fakes a suicide attempt. Upon her return home with her best friend Jen (Sarah Burns), they are visited by well-meaning friends who don’t know that Jay was faking and offer their condolences – in the form of tears, food, and porn.
We caught up with Palmigiano to talk about the film, the cast, and where its headed.
AfterEllen.com: What was the inspiration behind the film?
Lauren Palmigiano: I write comedy, but have noticed a pattern that I tend to write things based in some kind of sad situation and try to turn that into something funny. For this short, I wanted to do something about someone feeling really, really desperate and the ridiculous things we do when we’re feeling that hurt.
AE: Are there plans to turn this into a feature-length film?
LP: I would love to turn this into a feature, but there are no official plans for that at the moment. It’s only 14 minutes long now and when I show people they seem to want to know what happens with the characters afterward. I’d love to make a feature and answer that question!
AE: How did you come to assemble this cast? Were any of the parts specifically written for the people in the film?
LP: The cast is entirely made up of friends of mine. I’m lucky enough to have amazingly talented and hilarious friends. Some I’ve known for years through performing at UCB in NY and LA and some I’ve met recently. I pretty much knew who I wanted to play each character and thankfully everyone was game!
Nicol Paone (The Big Gay Sketch Show, Funny People) and Sarah Burns (I Love You, Man) play the main characters. They are both good friends of mine and it was such a blast shooting with them. We shot it in two days, mostly in my apartment, so it was a group of people who like hanging out getting to make something together. The rest of the cast showed up in one or two hour segments and shot their bits, some scripted, some improvised on set.
AE: Where else can we see your work, and what’s up next for the film?
LP: I’m a writer and producer at FunnyorDie.com so you can see my work there. A video I made with Liz Feldman and Mike Rose for FOD (A Gaythering Storm) is currently nominated for an HRC E-Hero award. I’m writing some other projects now and have just begun thinking about possibilities for another short.
As far as Cried Suicide, I’ve submitted it to some festivals and am just starting to hear back from them. So far it will be showing at the Santa Cruz Film Festival in May, which is exciting because I love that beach town. I’m really excited to get it out there and show it to people. I’ve got a Facebook page set up for the short that I’ll keep updated as I hear back about more festival screenings.
Watch the trailer for Cried Suicide here:
Cried Suicide will screen at the Tribeca Film Festival (Apr 23 – May 2), the Santa Cruz Film Festival (May 6 – 15), and at the Out Takes Festival in New Zealand (May 27-June 13). Will you check it out?
