RSVP
What if no one shows up?
ABOUT
Last year, Samantha threw herself a birthday party, and no one showed up. She cleaned her house, cooked food, and got cute for no one. Inspired by this low moment, she documents different parties, camera in hand, looking for common emotional threads among the hosts. Rye Ann throws a birthday rave, Pooja performs a Hindu prayer, Francesca cooks an elaborate Italian dinner, and Beth helms a triple-mansion house party. What begins as a search for commiseration becomes, instead, a community.
YEAR 2019
RUN TIME 14:00 Min
CAST & CREW CREDITS
DIRECTED BY Samantha Mitchell
PRODUCED BY Samantha Mitchell
DIRECTOR OF PHOTOGRAPHY Samantha Mitchell
POST-PRODUCTION SOUND BY Camila Franco Ribeiro Gomide
SCORE BY ellen cherry
PRINCIPAL CAST
Rye Ann | Pooja Kolluri | Uma Kolluri | Beth Frederick | Francesca Gallucci
DIRECTOR’S STATEMENT
RSVP has been on my mind ever since I realized no one was showing up to my twenty-sixth birthday party. The idea to create a film out of this experience began as a cynical fiction short and transformed through a long process of discovery into an empathetic documentary. I was truly lucky to find four very different hosts who were willing to collaborate with me to cultivate a space of vulnerability in front of the camera. My hope for this film is that the mutual respect during filming translates into a chance for audiences to witness authentic moments of connection.
DIRECTOR BIO
Samantha Mitchell is a filmmaker, writer, and curator living and working in Baltimore. Her writing has been published in Objet d’Art, Rutgers Review, and What Weekly. As film curator for Creative Alliance, she has hosted local filmmakers, screened international and repertory films, and garnered recognition from the Baltimore Sun for creating “the best place to see a movie that isn’t a movie theater.” Samantha will earn her MFA in Filmmaking from the Maryland Institute College of Art in 2019.
FILM AND PRODUCTION STILLS
AWARDS
FULL FILM
WHERE ARE THEY NOW?
Samantha Mitchell is a filmmaker, writer, and curator living and working in Baltimore. Her writing has been published in Objet d’Art, Rutgers Review, and What Weekly. As film curator for Creative Alliance, she has hosted local filmmakers, screened international and repertory films, and garnered recognition from the Baltimore Sun for creating “the best place to see a movie that isn’t a movie theater.” Samantha will earn her MFA in Filmmaking from the Maryland Institute College of Art in 2019.
(Update provided in May 2019)