Screening at Pairing Up block October 5th, 2025, at 7:00 PM For tickets: HQSFF
By Valerie Milano
Hollywood, CA (The Hollywood Times – Media Partner of HQSFF) 10/1/25 – The Hollywood Times is proud to serve as a media partner, continues its tradition of spotlighting daring and emotionally resonant works. Among its most striking selections this year is Fan Letter, the second short film from Antwerp-based filmmaker Zeb Daemen, a Belgian fashion photographer turned director. Through exquisite black-and-white cinematography, a haunting crooner ballad, and the intimacy of a single phone call, Zeb crafts a story about longing, memory, and whether first love can truly survive the passage of time.
In our Zoom interview, Zeb traced his earliest inspirations to childhood, when his parents would put him and his sister in front of films so they could have a few quiet hours. “That’s how it all started, and I really fell in love with cinema from a young age,” he shared. By the age of ten, he was already asking for a video camera, experimenting with homemade shorts, even as photography became his professional path.
Click below for our exclusive interview:
Fashion photography sharpened his eye for images and mood, a sensibility that now infuses his filmmaking. “My stories always begin with an image,” Zeb explained. For Fan Letter, that spark was an old photograph of an artist reading letters backstage, a moment frozen in time that grew into a meditation on fame, repression, and unfulfilled desire.
Set in the glamorous yet repressive 1950s, Fan Letter centers on Ricky, a celebrated singer at the height of his fame. On the surface, he is adored by young fans and steered by managers into a carefully constructed image. Yet beneath the spotlight, Ricky is haunted by his first love, a memory rekindled when he receives a letter that forces him to confront who he is and what he has lost.
Zeb described the era as “charged, glamorous, but also repressive,” a backdrop that heightens Ricky’s inner conflict. “In our story, Ricky is dreaming about his first love, imagining what if we just broke all the rules,” Zeb told me. “But in reality, it was just fantasy.”
One of the most memorable sequences is the phone call Ricky makes after receiving the letter. With actor Ben Wilson, Zeb captured the moment in a single take, so pure and restrained that the crew was silent afterward. “It was so beautifully done,” Zeb recalled. “You just feel that he wants to dream about something from the past, but then he gets back into reality.”
Shot in black and white to evoke the era’s nostalgia, the production leaned heavily on mood boards, vintage props, and meticulous styling. Zeb worked closely with stylist Michael Miller to recreate the period through costumes, sets, and even old cars, blending his photographic precision with cinematic storytelling.
Music, too, plays a central role. Just weeks before shooting, Zeb collaborated with two musicians who specialize in crooner-style songs to compose Ricky’s haunting ballad. Recorded with Wilson’s vocals in a whirlwind studio session, the song threads the story together, underscoring its themes of devotion and loss.
At its heart, Fan Letter asks whether we can ever return to first love, or whether it remains an untouchable memory. Zeb was reflective: “I think we all look back sometimes and wish we could return for a little bit. But it was a moment in time, you can’t recreate it. Sometimes you just have to move on, even though looking back can be nice.”
That duality, dreaming and remembering yet confronting the impossibility of revival, is what gives Fan Letter its quiet power. It’s not just a film about romance but about how memory shapes us, even when it cannot guide us forward.
Currently on the festival circuit, Fan Letter is already gathering momentum, with upcoming appearances including a screening in New York. Zeb is also developing new projects, including a potential Flemish-spoken short, while exploring collaborations that may lead to his first feature or miniseries.
Audiences can follow the film’s journey on Instagram at @FanLetterShortFilm, where teasers and festival updates are shared.
As a proud media partner of HQSFF, The Hollywood Times is thrilled to support Fan Letter, a film that speaks with elegance and restraint to the timeless ache of nostalgia. Zeb’s work reminds us that while the past may remain out of reach, its echoes continue to shape our present.
Fan Letter screens at the Hollywood Queer Short Film Festival, where stories like this illuminate not only queer history but also the universal longing for love, memory, and connection.
