By GABRIELLA BOCK | Reporter
A group of former Palisades Charter High School students have reunited to create a new, emotionally charged short film. Filmed in neighboring Brentwood with exterior shots in Pacific Palisades, “The Brittany Show” showcases the talent, craft and lasting friendships born in a PaliHi drama class.
A poignant, gripping peek into the throws of human fragility, “The Brittany Show” tells the story of a young woman seeking to liberate herself from her self-destructive insecurities. Written, produced and starring Brittany Fields, the short film explores the lasting imprint that the media’s unrealistic standards of womanhood can leave on a young mind.
Rich Schmitt/Staff Photographer
“She’s a girl that is very close to me,” Fields told the Palisadian-Post. “In part, she is me, but she’s also many girls that I know. She’s deeply insecure and she’s ready to grow out of her crazy obsession with both her body and celebrity culture.”
Fields, who studied method acting at the Lee Strasberg Film and Acting Institute, said she fashioned her character throughout hours of journaling and self study.
“I would throw myself into a dark place,” Fields said. “I would feel the uneasiness swirling around in my body. I would feel the braces in my mouth. And then I would write until I spilled everything out.”
The film’s director, Nasser Samara, began his creative friendship with Fields over a decade ago while participating in PaliHi’s drama department. The two have worked together on several previous projects, including Samara’s “Temporary”—a short that earned him a spot at the 2016 Arab Film Festival.
The duo said that they have always been inspired by stories with complex female leads, citing “Young Adult” and “Blue Jasmine” to be among their favorites.
PaliHi alum Sean Bloom—a composer who assisted Fields in creating original music for the film—and producer Nic Mora, along with many others, joined Fields and Samara on their journey to create this beautiful telling of what it means to be a girl struggling in the gilded shadow of the Hollywood sign.
“There’s truth to anything that Brittany puts her hands on,” Mora responded when asked what drew her into the project.
Fields, who self-financed the film, is seeking donors to help launch the short into next year’s film festival circuit. With a new Indiegogo campaign up and running, the all-star Pali crew have fixed their eyes on making it into Sundance 2018.
“Everybody knows what it feels like to be insecure and think that you don’t have help,” Fields said. “I’m realizing that help has always been there—I just had to reach out and ask for it.”
You can watch “The Brittany Show’s” full trailer at thebrittanyshow.org
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