The Long Step
In a claustrophobic Brooklyn apartment, an anxious young dancer struggles to prepare for an audition . . . but first must navigate the chaos of her father’s Dementia and her mother’s demands for help in order to leave on time.
A narrative short film with contemporary dance elements.
Synopsis
Mia, a lonely, frustrated dancer, lives at home with an overworked mother (Susanna) and a father stricken with Dementia (Vittorio). Mia needs to get ready for a callback audition that could change her life.
When she says goodbye for the morning, Vittorio’s grasp of reality takes a jolt: he imagines himself a young man preparing for a date. And Mia quickly finds that leaving isn’t as easy as she thinks.
Mia weaves in and out of reality herself, slipping into her own dance reveries as she tries to maneuver out of the apartment. But she’s blocked by a father struggling into a suit he hasn’t worn since 1986 and a frazzled mother fighting to calm him down. Her Metrocard has disappeared. So has her lucky shirt. And she blames her father for both.
