So To Speak

SLOW SLOW SLOW Productions - 2024

"SO TO SPEAK, a coming-of-age fiction film, follows Morena's desire to express and enjoy her freedom. Yet, others try to control her. Through artmaking, she digs into her sexual herstory, including her pivotal relationships with lovers, friends, and family. She recognizes sexuality as both traumatic and joyful, and most importantly a site of passion, power and pleasure. Her struggle forges diverse sexual futures for herself and other Asian American women." - sotospeakfilm.com

trailer

production team

Writer, Director & Producer: Celine Parreñas Shimizu
Producer: Janet Chen (Ma)
Co-Producer: Priya Vashist
Director of Photography: Jacqueline Chan
Production Designer: Chantal Trazo
Costume Designer: Pamela Rodríguez-Montero

Production Sound Mixer: Nhung Nguyen
Editor: Jing Niu
Post-Production Sound Editor, Re-Recorder & Mixer: Rosa Sungjoo Park
Composer: Theodore S. Gonzalves
Makeup Artist: Carla Grace Fajardo
Production Manager & First Assistant Director: Marnie Salvani

Set Designer: Kairo Chin
Props Master: Emily Tao
BTS Photography: Meloddy Gao & Jazmine Noguera

the flowers

making the models

in the film, the main character takes her paintings and folds them into 9 little "flowers," which represent sex acts.

miniature models of the first versions of flowers

I researched existing origami creations and techniques and using origami paper, I experimented with different designs.

recreating the paintings

because there were more flowers (9 total) than paintings (6 total), I had to distribute the 9 flowers amongst the paintings. I also needed to create half-finished versions of each flower, so that the actors could pretend that they were making each flower, so this was taken into consideration when distributing.

artist Nami Lee created the paintings that the flowers are "made from." to replicate her paintings, I used the same gesso & canvas. however, Lee used oil paints, while I decided to use acrylic paint