Last year’s Florida Film Festival had a short film called The Blood of the Dinosaurs that was a trippy children’s show gone wrong, and the same production team is back with director Sam Fox’s new surrealist comedy short film FCK’N NUTS. A 12-minute movie about a young woman’s fear of losing her boyfriend when he finally meets her family and sees her home life, this is a funny and wild movie that takes a pun and pushes it into a weird and gross direction that is quite memorable. FCK’N NUTS is a part of the Midnight Shorts program at this year’s Florida Film Festival, and the following is a quick interview with Sam Fox regarding this film, what it means to her, and what the future has in store.
Chris Crespo: You said previously in another interview that the inspiration for this short was your own upbringing, specifically, living in a home with an alcoholic and drug addicted parent and not being able to bring people over to your house without exposing your reality to them. We know art is a great way to work through our emotions, thoughts and pain, so how has it been to take FCK’N NUTS around to different cities and film festivals and have these conversations with people?
Sam Fox: I’ve noticed that the real catharsis has taken place in my press process. Between festival screening Q&A’s and the amazing press and interviews we’ve garnered, I’ve had the opportunity to expose a very dark part of myself and my upbringing. When making FCK’N NUTS, we were so deep in it, all the stress of trying to get it right and hit the beats, I didn’t have a chance to process the story I was trying to tell. I also wanted to avoid imposing too much of my own story on Vincent and Maddie as they discovered their characters during rehearsal. When releasing FCK’N NUTS to the world, I made the decision to be vulnerable and honest in all press. I’m sick of lying at my expense to protect other people. I spent so much of my life playing a character and manipulating myself to fit everyone else’s needs. I have to admit, it’s incredibly challenging for me to go against everything that was instilled in me growing up, but in the process I am learning to be open and authentic. I think as an artist that is my number one responsibility.
