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Scotty's Vag
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TYPE: Narrative Short
GENRE: Drama
STATUS: Production
LOGLINE
A coming-of-age film about a college freshman who goes outside her comfort zone to impress the older girl she wants as her sorority “big”.
SYNOPSIS
The night of a sorority hazing event, Scotty, a college freshman, must make an impression on the older girl she wants as her sorority “big.” Scotty learns how far she’s willing to go to prove herself when put to a test involving her virginity.
ARTISTIC STATEMENT
Scotty’s Vag is a short film that explores themes I consistently return to in my work; female sexuality, power dynamics, and how they interact. This story is an especially personal one. From a young age, I experienced tumultuous female relationships. I was raised by a single mom who struggled with mental illness—sometimes I was her only best friend, other times her foe. I found myself deeply wanting a mom who would talk me through things like crushes, birth control, shaving. It was this wanting that led me to join a sorority in college.The sorority was a sisterhood bound by ritual and friendship. It provided me with the female validation I had always craved from my mom, and these women shared their wisdom about all of the things I had never learned from her. It was empowering—I felt protected and part of something meaningful. But there was a flip side to this. The power dynamics of the sorority were complex. Older girls acted as role models that younger girls wanted to impress, but they could also be cruel—making younger girls feel “less than”, often in regards to their sexuality. A group-think mentality deemed hazing acceptable, part of the rite of passage. Looking back, I’m struck by how I was simultaneously terrified and enthralled by older girls, and by how I, too, was capable of inflicting pain on younger girls when I was in their position. I still reckon with this. It is this shift from victim to victimizer that is at the core of Scotty’s Vag. Scotty begins our film as a virgin, in awe of Hunter, an older girl who she admires for her unabashed sexuality. When Scotty feels seen by Hunter, the light of the world is on her! But as hazing progresses, Hunter pushes Scotty to lose her virginity in a way that crosses Scotty’s boundaries. At the end of the film, Scotty finds a way to intimidate Hunter. She reclaims her power, but a seed of violence lives on in her. I’m drawn to stories that show how love and pain can be inextricable. I depict characters without judgement, hoping to capture humanity in their flaws. Even in their lowest moments, film allows me to capture the poeticism of their essence and experience. To me, this brings attention to the nuance that exists in the human experience. I hope that Scotty’s Vag will bring audiences to consider the nuance in female bonding—how it can be both empowering, loving, and painful.
KEY CREW
Chaconne Martin-Berkowicz - Director/Writer
Chaconne Martin-Berkowicz is a writer & director from Portland, OR. She was a Staff Writer on Amazon's ‘I Know What You Did Last Summer’. Her short film, ‘In Sync’, premiered at Maryland Film Festival 2021, and she shadowed director Logan Kibens. Chaconne was previously Writers’ Assistant on FX’s ‘The Old Man’ and Showrunner’s Assistant on Apple’s ‘Foundation.’ Prior to moving to LA, Chaconne received a Max Kade Grant to spend a summer in Berlin researching how female sexuality is portrayed in films of the Weimar Republic. Female sexuality and it's evolution are themes she explores in her work. She holds a BA in Creative Writing & Film Production from Johns Hopkins University.
Cailin Lobb-Rabe - Producer
Cailin Lobb-Rabe is a Marketing Director at Team One, and a Freelance Film Producer based in Los Angeles. Born and raised in Germany, she moved to Northern California aged 11, before attending university in England at the University of Kent. Her expertise lies in project management from conception to completion, including managing teams and forecasting and overseeing large budgets. She most recently produced a UCLA MFA Film short currently in post-production. Cailin has a passion for story-telling centered on complex relationships and feminine experiences.
Gia Rigoli - Producer
Gia Rigoli is a Mexican-American film producer currently based in Los Angeles and Nogales, AZ. At 20 years old she produced her first feature film, Rock Steady Row, which world premiered at the Slamdance Film Festival where it took home the Narrative Grand Jury Prize and Audience Award for Best Narrative Film and was subsequently distributed by Gunpowder & Sky. Gia's other feature credits include Salton Sea and Birds Without Feathers which are distributed by Epoch Films and Synergetic Films, respectively. Her films have screened at over 50 festivals worldwide. Gia graduated with a BFA in Creative Producing from Chapman University where she was mentored by Michael Apted. Her senior thesis film, Pasajeros en Trance, was a Student Academy Award Finalist.
Gia was selected as a Berlinale Talents participant and a Project Involve Producing fellow where she was awarded the Sony Pictures Entertainment Fellowship. She was also selected as a participant of the NALIP Producer’s Incubator Lab. Gia works as a freelance producer in Los Angeles and has produced dozens of short films, music videos, and commercials including branded content with Gucci, Garage Magazine, and VICE. In 2020, she founded a production company, Discordia Cine, with her frequent collaborators. They are in development on three feature films that have been supported by the Sundance Institute, Film Independent, The Gotham/IFP, Berlinale, PGA and the SFFilm Westridge Grant.
Gemma Doll-Grossman - Cinematographer
Gemma Doll-Grossman is an LA-based cinematographer. A San Francisco native with Wesleyan University degrees in Film Studies + Biology, Gemma worked in Italy for many years before returning to the US to get her MFA in Cinematography from the American Film Institute Conservatory. Films she’s shot have played at numerous festivals including Cucalorus, Maryland, and the upcoming Venice International Film Festival. Gemma is committed to exploring untapped perspectives, utilizing experimental techniques to enter psychological states and somatic experiences, and centering womxn's voices.
Veronica Kompalic - Producer
Vero Kompalic is a Venezuelan filmmaker and painter currently based in Los Angeles. Raised between Southern Africa and South America, and with a degree from Chapman University in Film Studies and Post-Colonial and Revolutionary Studies, she focuses most of her scholarship work on postcolonial feminist discourse, with publications on the sexual transgression of Catherine Breillat’s work and the radical implications of the cinema of Mariana Rondon. She is currently finalizing a publication on the imminent New Wave of Venezuelan Cinema and the relationship between the politics of the current Venezuelan government and the last 20 years of Venezuelan films. After 16 years of painting, Kompalic has focused most of her pictorial career in exploring the restrictive liberation of Venezuelan people. In 2018 she worked as a film programmer for Film Independent’s Spirit Awards. As of 2020 she is finalizing post-production on SUMMERTIME, Carlos Lopez Estrada’s follow up to BLINDSPOTTING, which will premiere at Sundance 2020. She served as an associate producer and writer on SUMMERTIME whilst developing her second feature script on the effects of Catholic Colonization in Northern South America.
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