Stoned for Christmas
Director: Morgan Young
Cast:JJ Moon, Evan Thompson, Sarah Cuneo, Zayna Quader, Rosa Ferreira-Rodi, Sir Babygirl
Crew:Writer: Morgan Young. Producer: Morgan Young.
Email:morgan.e.young@gmail.com
Synopsis
"Stoned for Christmas" is a multimedia whirlwind and a love letter to weed. This short film follows the adventures of one cannabis courier delivering at Christmastime. Built like a blunt rotation, Stoned for Christmas cycles through a weed courier’s night of deliveries with each vignette in a different style of animation. The result is a delightfully surrealist trip, one that represents the chaos of NYC, the ups and downs of a high, and the unique unpredictability of navigating the world while trans.
Trailer
About the director
As a writer-director-producer-stoner-puppeteer, much of Morgan Young's work exists in the intersections of film, theatre, and music. Excess, drag, arts and crafts, and clown were all present in the media that raised Morgan, and now they celebrate each of those whimsies in their own multi-genre production company, Talking Cat Productions.
Stoned for Christmas is Morgan's debut animated short as writer, director, and producer. The short has been awarded such accolades as the Jury Award at Hollywood New Directors, and is part of the official selection of Big Apple Film Festival and Dumbo Film Festival.
Outside of Talking Cat, Morgan’s past credits include: Production Coordinator at Brown Bag Films and Disney Jr.’s RoboGobo and Associate Producer at Nickelodeon’s Blaze and the Monster Machines.
Filmmaker's note
Stoned for Christmas is a collaboration with artists all over the world, each chosen for their unique artistic style and their ability to bend traditional narrative form. Built like a blunt rotation, Stoned for Christmas cycles through a weed courier’s night of deliveries with each vignette in a different style of animation. The result is a delightfully surrealist trip, one that represents the chaos of NYC, the ups and downs of a high, and the unique unpredictability of navigating the world while trans.
Stoned for Christmas holds a funhouse mirror up to director Morgan Young’s experience living in NYC. They moved to the city with a brand new Ohio license and a TV production assistant job that required daily driving – mostly deliveries. Navigating new streets, new gigs, and the new cast of any city block, Morgan was equal parts tickled and buffeted by the adventure.
Over the years, they cultivated a supportive community of queer stoners (of which, in NYC, there are countless); little lighthouses in an anonymous sea. These familiar faces supported them through many transitions; from production assistant to producer, from shifting pronouns to second puberty. Sprouted from NYC’s chaotic, queer, stoner soil, Stoned for Christmas is an appropriately experimental celebration of huge cities, community, and weed.