Teen Mary
Director: Ali Rosenthal
United States, 2024, 20 min
Shooting Format:Digital
Festival Year:2025
Category:Narrative Short
Genres:Comedy, LGBTQ+, Religion, History, Epic
Cast:Isabella Tagliati, Tarek Ziad, Christian Vierling, John Pope, Maggie Wheeler, John Rothman.
Crew:Writer: Ali Rosenthal. Producers: Hector Martinez, Bridger Zadina.
Email:ali.r.rosenthal@gmail.com
Synopsis
In Ancient Nazareth in the year Zero, a pregnant teenage girl (MARY) and her gay best friend (JOSEPH) must hatch a plan to save their lives when they discover they might get stoned to death for their sexual "sins". Their plan? They'll convince everyone that GOD made Mary pregnant... with the new Messiah.
Trailer
About the director
Ali Rosenthal wrote and directed TEEN MARY as her 2024 thesis film for the AFI Conservatory, where she was a Directing Fellow. It’s an autobiography. Ali (not short for anything) is a graduate of Stanford University and previously worked at Lyrical Media. She grew up in New York City, 3 blocks from the World Trade Center, which is probably why she makes comedies. She attended the same Jewish hippie arts camp as Adrien Brody, but not at the same time (she is extremely young). Half her ancestors are from Sparta. She has been described as “rambunctious.”
Filmmaker's note
I used to have dreams I was the Virgin Mary. The dreams were so vivid and frequent that I kind of thought...well, what if I am?! So, right before I planned to lose my virginity, I literally prayed and gave God a couple days' notice in case he wanted to make any impregnation moves.
I was like, "Dear God, I am planning on Doing It. If there was any truth to those dreams of immaculate conception... well, now's sort of the time. Respectfully, you have 72 hours. Amen."
Mind you, I wasn't raised religious. Mary wasn't a part of my life growing up in secular, liberal Manhattan. So why did she pop up so much in my dreams and my ideas about virginity?!
Because JudeoChristian beliefs are ingrained in Western society, Mary has long been the blueprint (conscious or unconscious) for how women are supposed to act: pure, virginal, obedient, pious, gentle, and unquestioning.
But this blueprint is totally unattainable!! I mean, come on, who was the architect on this thing?! Women can't be virginal and also a mother! So we fail one way or another, and we feel ashamed. I strongly believe that the worship of Mary's virginity (and equating it with her moral purity) has directly led to a shame around sex that is emotionally and physically harmful to girls and women all around the world. And, coincidentally, shame is really good at keeping people unempowered.
So, we're retelling the Bible's most sacred story, but with a teen Mary who loved sex. She's just a normal 16-year-old (and "16" is generous) teenage girl, who's mean to her mom, makes mistakes, gets horny, and lies about things. She's a real person, not some ideal!!
Oh, and Joseph is quite gay. So the town of Nazareth doesn't really like either of them.
We're satirizing the conservative ideologies of the biblical world, many of which are still at work today. Religion can be beautiful, but not when it's used to oppress women and the LGBTQ+ community!
We hope you'll appreciate what we're doing with TEEN MARY. It has a higher purpose, but more than that, it's also just a ton of fun.
-- Ali Rosenthal, Writer/Director of "TEEN MARY"