a short film by Daisy RosatoIn the wake of her brother’s sudden death, a distant young woman returns home to her overbearing mother in Queens, NY.
Time: The Summer-Fall Cusp, Present Day
Place: The Cantoni’s Family Home; The Ferry; The Atlantic Ocean
CHRIS, a wandering twenty-something, returns to a post-Hurricane Sandy renovated family home for the memorial service of her recently deceased brother. DONNA, her mother, greets her in the front yard. Having gotten news that Michael’s remains are ready for pick up, Donna wastes no time; she has already brewed a pot of coffee and sets out leftover cold chicken cutlets for them to consume before heading out. The two estranged women settle into their short and uncomfortable reunion. When Donna insists that Chris retrieve Michael’s ashes with her, things come to a head. Chris refuses to compromise and the two go off on their separate ways to attempt to grieve the only way they have ever known how— alone. Donna gets her son’s ashes and, while on the ferry home, decides to scatter them across the water. Meanwhile, Chris goes out surfing, an activity she and her brother used to do together. The water is choppy and suddenly Chris is overpowered by it. That evening Donna searches for Chris, worrying when she comes back to an empty house. She finds Chris quietly sitting out at the edge of the sand. The two women reunite in a new understanding of their mutual loss, even if the peacemaking is only temporary.
CHRIS
Chris, mid-twenties, is either slightly adrift or right on track depending on who you ask. She is an independent young woman and hasn’t been home in a long time. Her lifestyle bumps up against the traditional Italian-American home she was raised in. Having lost her father at a young age, she was closest to her younger brother before heading out on her own. Her fire-y nature, having propelled her far away, happens to be a direct inheritance to her mother.
DONNA
Donna is a widowed matriarch and on paper may sound unimpressive. She lives in the same town she grew up in and is an active member of her community, if begrudgingly at times. She is alone now, except for her far-off daughter and had high hopes that this tragedy could reunite them. She can be coarse at times and this tends to isolate her from those she loves. She has smarts, resilience, and just when you think you understand her she has a way of surprising you.
Jeanne Dielman
meets
Lady Bird
meets
Manchester by the Sea
Color and Composition
Naturalistic. Straightforward. Emotive. Lingering.
Blues-Greens. Browns. Yellows-Oranges.
Emphasizing character’s relationships and emotional states.
Providing an immersive point of view.
Sonic Tone
Ambient. Understated. Emotional.
White noise like the ocean. Nostalgic like coming home at the end of summer.
Now is a vital moment to share stories like Rockaway as we all embark on the next chapter in this time marked with loneliness and soul-rattling pain.
Coming back together after a long time apart is hard. We change. We get stuck. People don’t make it to the other side. Nothing prepares you for losing someone, especially when they’re young and when they take their own life. Rockaway is about the ways in which the living grieve those who are gone.
It is an attempt at looking at two opposite ways of grieving, at empathizing with them both, and at understanding the similarities between them. We are in desperate need of a way to grasp just a little bit at our pain so it doesn’t swallow us whole.