In 2022 the Locker Room, a NYC art collective hosted its annual artist residency by granting ten women artists free rein to pursue their dream projects, including film director Winnie Cheung.The native New Yorker used this opportunity to produce her first feature film — a haunting metafictional tale about female artists pushed beyond their limits at a cursed artist residency. Tapping into the ethos of DIY punk cinema, Winnie called upon the gallery to double as the set and the residents as performers. Winnie documented the experience of the residency while crafting death scenes in secrecy. One by one, each artist disappears until the “final girl” confronts the darkness that haunts the gallery. Of course, the final girl is the director herself. Her own worst nightmare.
The gallery is real. The artists are real. The residency is real. The passion is real.
The story may or may not be real.
''Resurrects the collective spirit that once defined New York City’s artistic ecosystem, yet spirals into derangement as the film shifts into funhouse horror à la Ryan Trecartin''
DIRECTOR’S STATEMENT
Rather than representing women as sexualized victims through the traditional lens of male fantasies, I’m exploring the real horror behind the anxiety of being a female artist, which is often mixed in with pleasure, delirium and joy. There have been so many instances where I let the desire to create “great” work get the best of me. I’ve lost track of the world outside of myself. I’ve forgotten to take care of my body. I’ve trapped myself inside my own fascinations but I’ve also experienced the joy of letting things get messy and being the imperfect version of myself. I want you to experience this ecstatic state even inside the deadliest of scenes.Directed by Winnie Cheung, Written by Courtney Andujar & Hillary Andujar (Scare Package), Director of Photography
Winnie Cheung, Edited by Benjamin Shearn (Give Me Pity!, Please Baby Please) & Winnie Cheung (Woodlands: A History Of Folk Horror, Scare Package) Sound design by Daniel Rosato, Color by Steven San Miguel. Post: Lost Planet Editorial. Produced by The Locker Room. EP Samara Bliss.