BIO

Stephen Barnett is a Queer Indie Filmmaker.
THE CHOICE is their 21st short film after years of exploratory no-budgets of varied length and a few accolades while earning a CUNY Baccalaureate for Unique & Interdisciplinary Studies in Theatre & Cinema and a CUNY Master's in Gender, Sexuality, and Cinema Theory. They spent '22 producing this short film project to socially empower their mother's choice while mourning the passing of both parents in the Fall of '21 and then began the film's festival submissions in '23. Currently, they've accepted the offer of admissions to the Fall '24 semester for the inaugural Media Producing MA program at NYU, Tisch.

DIRECTOR'S STATEMENT

What compels a person to choose a contrary point of view to the only one they’ve ever known? For Mrs. "Ruth" Wilson (Lucy McMichael) it is the tragic consequence of the inherent trap of both loving and hating, which prompts the discussion with her Priest/Father (Alessandro Colla) regarding the main/principal character Tracy (Ruth's LGBTQ+ grandchild). When writing the script and then working with Lucy, Alessandro, and the collective Crew the mis-en-scene’s objective was Ruth’s communicating from an evolving clarity of self-awareness.