Brunch!

Filmmaker's note

The generative image for this story came from working in production on a Saturday in the West Village. I watched from the back of a truck all morning as groups of beautiful, wealthy young New Yorkers waltzed in to bottomless brunches, laughing and kissing each other on the cheek, and then emerged hours later looking deeply intoxicated and distressed about the world. There was yelling, crying, people destroying things for no reason, and seeking out ever deeper highs. It left me thinking about this weekend ritual of the young urban professional in a more critical context. What is the tension lying underneath the desire for a seemingly infinite amount of alcohol on a Sunday morning?

Our aim is not to poke fun at “those people”. We are “those people”. Most of us are engaged in this form of denial and escapism in one way or another. I imagine a graph with a line going steadily up, showing how increasingly “artisanal” everything we consume is that maps nicely over another trend line showing how increasingly “apocalyptic” our world feels. The film seeks to explore the inner world of someone having a moment where they can’t keep up the facade any longer. Where they break down and shout: “I can’t just keep pretending everything is okay while I stuff truffle fries in my mouth!” How do the people around them react when they try to burst that bubble?