Into the Valley
Emily Sandifer
United States, 2023, 22 min.
In English.
Includes adult language.
In 1967, San Francisco, B (played by Emily Somers, Westworld) is a woman out of place, caught between the traditionalists and hippie movement. Struggling with unaddressed anxiety stemming from expectations to become a wife and mother, B drives her Mustang through the Sacramento Valley, cashing counterfeit checks at banks along the way. When she must reach out to her old admirer Daughtry for help, he refuses to replenish her checks. Met with suspicion as a woman traveling alone, B impulsively picks up a hitchhiking teenage girl. When the girl threatens to blow her cover, B is forced to decide where she belongs.
Director's Statement
The 1967 world of Ruth Galm’s “Into the Valley” novel is richly nuanced. My challenge was to take all the cultural and emotional details of the novel and Emily Somers’ feature length script and deliver a faithful, inspired version of her short proof of concept script, which essentially begins in the middle of B’s journey. As director, I wanted to build the world as much as I could in a short film, while leaving enough intrigue and questions lingering at the end that the audience would want more.
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