WORK Film Festival Screenings:
Tribeca Film Festival, New York City
*WINNER* Jury Prize: Outstanding US Narrative Short, Outfest Los Angeles CA (Academy Qualifying Award)
*WINNER* Best Drama Short, Salute Your Shorts Film Festival, Los Angeles CA
Palm Springs Int'l Shortfest, Palm Springs CA
Outfest Fusion, Los Angeles CA
Inside Out, Toronto Canada
Seattle Queer Film Festival, WA
The Bush Films, Brooklyn NY
Melbourne Queer Film Festival, Melbourne, Australia
Flickerfest, Sydney, Australia
Newfest, New York, NY
Carrboro Film Festival, North Carolina
El Paso Film Festival, TX
Hollyshorts Film Festival, Los Angeles CA
Nashville Film Festival, TN
Kaleidoscope LGBTQ+ Film Festival, Little Rock AK
New York Latino Film Festival, New York City
Kashish Mumbai Int'l Queer Film Festival, India
American Film Festival x Film Forum, Warsaw & Wrocław, Poland
Queer Women of Color Film Festival, San Francisco CA
Dayton LGBT Film Festival, OH
Still Voice Film Festival, Ireland
Official Latino Film Festival, Palm Springs CA
Bushwick Film Festival, Brooklyn NY
Int'l Doc and Short Film Festival of Kerala, Thiruvananthapuram, India
Pride Pictures Queer Film Festival, Karlsruhe Germany
Capital City Film Festival, MI
WickedQueer Film Festival, Boston
WORK
Logline: Unable to move on from a breakup, Gabriela impulsively drops into an old job, where she unexpectedly runs into a friend from her past.
This 13 minute narrative short film was made in the AFI Directing Workshop for Women.
Director’s Statement
In my work I am often interested in exploring the innate feelings of loneliness we feel as humans and our longing for connection. I wanted to tell the story of this queer Latina, who is at a crossroads in her life, searching for a way forward after a painful breakup. Often we feel like we lose a piece of our identity after a long term relationship ends, and we can be left wondering who we are without the other person, without the life we had grown so comfortable in. In this story, I wanted to show what the journey of reclamation of self might look like, though a queer, Chicana, sex-worker lens. I believe that by telling stories from underrepresented perspectives, we challenge audiences perceptions, and we create space and validity for experiences which may differ from what is usually depicted in the mainstream.
Inspired by personal experiences, it was important to me in this story to authentically depict the world of underground lap dance parties, without a lens of judgement. I wanted to show dancing as a job, with ups and downs like any other, and to tell the story with nuance, without shame, and with characters that feel real and grounded. For Gabriela, going back to this job gives her a sense of control over her life again, as she is going back to a world she knows. However it is when she is left in solitude, that she is ultimately able to come to a deeper understanding of herself and where she is at.
Work is currently being developed into a feature film. The feature script was selected as 1 of 6 narrative projects for the Sundance x WIF Financing Intensive and has been supported by a Sundance Uprise Grant.
Gabriela (Lead Talent)
Marisela Zumbado’s passion for acting stems across television, film and theatre. She can most recently can be seen in the recurring role of ‘Luz’ in the new queer HBO MAX original series Genera+ion. She can also be seen in a recurring role in the upcoming Netflix series On the Verge starring Julie Delpy and Elizabeth Shue.
Marisela started working shortly after moving to Los Angeles, from Anna Kerrigan’s short Hot Seat that premiered at the 2017 Sundance Film Festival to her standout performance in the critically acclaimed HBO access film Sterling, which premiered in 2019 at SXSW. She has also had great roles in Showtime’s The Affair, Amazon’s Goliath and Fox’s Deputy and Lethal Weapon amongst many other projects.
Originally from Miami, FL. acting led Marisela to Los Angeles to start her career while simultaneously earning her degree in Interdisciplinary Studies. As a first generation American pursing her dreams, Marisela credits living out this hope of her immigrant family as her driving force.
Writer / Director
April Maxey is a queer Chicana filmmaker from San Antonio, Texas, based in Los Angeles by way of New York. Her work explores queer intimacy, belonging, and healing and she is most interested in working on stories which center underrepresented perspectives. April’s short film, Work, was made in AFI’s DWW+ program and it premiered at the 2022 Sundance Film Festival, going on to screen at other festivals such as Tribeca, Palm Springs Shortfest, and Outfest, where it won the Academy-qualifying Grand Jury Prize for Outstanding US Narrative Short. April is a current Sundance x Adobe Women to Watch Fellow, was also a Sundance Uprise Fellow, and an alumna of the prestigious Berlinale Talents Short Film Station. Her short films have collectively screened at over 75 festivals across 18 countries and won 10 awards internationally. April’s directing approach is informed by her years working as a cinematographer and editor.
Producer
Skylar Andrews is a producer and writer from Dallas, Texas, who is fascinated by the nuances of truth. A storyteller with more than 15 years of experience, she's worked on Emmy award-winning unscripted television shows, independent films, and Cannes Lion award-winning digital campaigns. She produced the short film, Work, which premiered at the 2022 Sundance Film Festival, and is the Co-Executive Producer on a limited documentary series about the late rapper Nipsey Hussle. As a creative executive, Skylar's work spans various mediums while centering underrepresented voices and narratives too often excluded from the mainstream.
Cinematographer
Melinda James is a Cinematographer whose work encompasses documentaries, narratives, installations, commercials, and music videos. As a kid growing up in Yuba City, California, she enjoyed looking through toy viewfinders and later on discovered cinematography is not simply about looking, but about creating points of connection. Centering her work on women, QTPOC, and underrepresented communities, Melinda is drawn to the process of unearthing the nuances of people’s everyday lives. Most recently, Melinda DP’ed and co-directed “Oklahoma is Black,” a poetic portrait of Black life in Oklahoma City which was nominated for Best Documentary Short at BlackStar and DC Black film festivals. She’s worked with Hulu, Netflix, Disney Channel, FX, and Pandora. Melinda made the list of “Mind Blowing Cinematographers” by Emmy Possum & Free The Work, awarded an ASC Vision Mentorship with John Simmons, ASC, and is a member of the International Collective of Female Cinematographers.
Associate Producer
Nava Mau is a filmmaker, actress, and cultural worker. She is a trans Latina who has lived in Mexico City, San Antonio, and Oakland, CA. Nava wrote, produced, directed, and starred in “Waking Hour,” a short film that screened in festivals around the world. She was selected as a Production Fellow for the Netflix documentary “Disclosure,” and she also produced the short films “Sam’s Town” and “Lovebites,” now streaming on the Issa Rae Presents channel. For 8 years, Nava worked in the fields of healing justice and culture change with community-based service providers, student organizations, and survivors of violence. Nava appeared as a series regular in the HBO Max series “Generation,” and most recently as Teri in Netflix’s Baby Reindeer. Nava’s long-term vision is to illuminate the stories of marginalized people in order to transform their access to resources.
Editor
Steph Zenee Perez is an LA-based film editor and graduate of the American Film Institute Conservatory. She is a first generation Mexican-American who is interested in compelling stories that explore human complexities, diverse cultures, and underrepresented communities.
During her time at AFI she edited over a dozen short films including her two thesis films, VESSELS and ICEBOX. ICEBOX won the Live-Action Grand Jury Award at AFI FEST and was shortlisted for the 90th Academy Awards Live-Action Short-Film category. VESSELS has screened at over 50 film festivals worldwide, won the acclaimed Iris Prize, and was awarded best editing at the NewFilmmakers Best of 2017. During her free time, she is a recurring editor for Julie Hébert's LOOK WHAT SHE DID telling meaningful stories about unknown, inspiring women. Perez is a Film Independent Project Involve Editing Fellow.
Her latest credits include indie feature film THE FEELS, Amazon docu-series LORENA, Starz tv series VIDA, Hulu tv series HIGH FIDELITY, and Netflix tv series BRAND NEW CHERRY FLAVOR. She served as editor, co-writer, and co-producer on her latest project, BORN FREE, a documentary about the maternal mortality crisis in the United States.
PRESENTED BY
The American Film Institute's Directing Workshop for Women (AFI DWW) is a hands-on training program committed to increasing the number of women working professionally as narrative screen directors. Every year, hundreds of applicants apply for one of eight spots in this prestigious program.
Distinguished DWW alumnae include Maya Angelou, Lesli Linka Glatter (HOMELAND), Sarah Gertrude Shapiro (UNREAL), Tricia Brock (ORANGE IS THE NEW BLACK), Neema Barnette (LUKE CAGE), Jennifer Getzinger (MAD MEN) and Hanelle Culpepper (STAR TREK: DISCOVERY). Anne Bancroft, Ellen Burstyn, Rebecca Cammisa, Dyan Cannon, Hanelle Culpepper, Jan Eliasberg, Naomi Foner, Lyn Goldfarb, Randa Haines, Victoria Hochberg, Marianne Jean-Baptiste, Lynne Littman, Matia Karrell, Nancy Malone, Becky Smith, Cicely Tyson and Joanne Woodward.