By Valerie Milano
Los Angeles, CA (The Hollywood Times) 7/15/23 – The challenge: Write and direct a short film about a forbidden love affair between two young women, set it in a society that has really harsh views on LGBTQ issues, do it with hardly any dialogue, and do it in less than four minutes.
Go! Can you, do it? Writer/director Sundeep Morrison can – and has in her powerful short film, “Your Love,” which will have its North American premiere at the OUTFEST Los Angeles LGBTQ+ Festival, the largest, most prestigious queer film festival in the world, on Friday, July 21, 2023, as part of its popular shorts program.
The film, which has a total run time of 3 minutes, 59 seconds, tells the story of two young Indian women who are denied their desired place with each other by one of the girls’ parents, only to be reunited years later with the help of an unexpected soul, thus being gifted a second chance at love.
Based on a true story of a South Asian woman who came out of the closet in her 60’s and using only five lines of dialogue, Morrison uses images and a powerful soundtrack to communicate her message of lasting love and the need for protecting the rights of queer people of all ages worldwide.
In an exclusive interview with The Hollywood Times, Morrison said the music is “the other character” in her film.
“The song that is set to is an iconic Punjabi folk song, and the title translates into ‘Your One Love’,” they said. “So, the film is really an homage to the song. I had three minutes and 18 seconds to tell the story, and it’s a love song we all grew up listening to, so that lead to it just being the music (and almost no dialogue).”
Vancouver-based producer/musician Asad Khan, who goes by the name Khanvict, was the genius behind this special iteration of the song, Morrison said. “He does a lot of remixes with iconic folk songs and is really one of those souls that through music, builds bridges within the culture.”
Morrison said the song reminded her of her mother, who passed away during production of “Your Love.” Morrison shared this version of the song with her mom before her death, and even told her the love story was going to feature two women.
: Mom gave her blessing, and the film was made, they said, with the “invisible” members of our society.
“I started thinking, what about all our queer elders, the invisible ones who, in order to survive, had to bury that most secret part of themselves whether it was for their own safety or societal or family pressures,” Morrison said.
Morrison, who has been around Punjabi cinema for many years, said it was time for a queer love story to be told.
“We’ve all seen the stories, it’s boy-meets-girl or girl-meets boy, and they fall in love, but they’re torn apart. But at the end of the film, they’re together, and I thought “I’ve never seen South Asian queer love shown that way,”
Morrison said she thought of the woman who came out at 60, and wondered what if her story had a happy ending like that? “Your Love” provides the “Happily Ever After.” Shot entirely on location in Valley Village, the San Fernando suburb of Los Angeles, the lush green backgrounds serve to make this fil a pleasure to the eye as well as the ear.
Another important collaboration was between Morrison and D’Lo (Death and Bowling) a transgender Sri Lankan-American performer, writer, and community activist. This was Morrison’s first film in the queer community setting, so D’s collaboration from the start to finish on this project was key, they said.
And community was extremely important, particularly with world attitudes towards queer citizens in a state of flux right now, Morrison said.
“I think community is so important when you are putting out content like this,” they said, “because same-sex marriage is still illegal in India and people do not have rights around the world, even in the United States. There’s a war on trans bodies and on same-sex love. D’Lo really supported the entire process, and I am glad to be in community with a soul like him.”
The film had its World Premiere at Kashish Mumbai Queer Film Festival, the longest-running LGBTQIA+ festival in South Asia, in June during Pride Month. Morrison was in attendance and was recognized as an emerging Indian filmmaker. It’s OUTFEST screening will take place on Friday July 21 at 9:45 p.m. at Directors Guild of America Theater 1.
