Directors Statement:

 

When I was in 10th grade my dad almost died from his third bout of cancer. In the 4 years prior, we had lost 3 other family members in tragic circumstances. Suddenly, death was all I knew and all I could see. As a growing adolescent, I felt my youth and my parents stripped from my helpless hands. I had to grow up faster than I was ready to. Go get a job, go to school, do every activity you have to to get into college, and pretend your life is normal even though nothing would be the same. I decided that if I could stand on my own, I would never need my parents. I didn't even realize it was all to protect myself from my fear of losing them next.

 

Now, at 22, I find the vast openness of life daunting. I feel like I can barely see 5 feet in front of me. I think I've realized that part of being an adult is just pretending you know the answers when really, you're still that terrified 10th grader at the foot of his dying father's bed.

 

“A Place to Hide” is a story about coming into adulthood and how realizing our parents’ mortality becomes the suffocating realization of our own. How does growing up start to feel more isolating as we mature? How do we find connection when we feel like there’s no one who understands us, no one who sees us? In what ways do we perform in our lives to feign control? What lengths will we go to for the ones we love? Sometimes we find ourselves just searching for a place to hide from it all, but life always seems to always find a way to seep in.