Angels

Parity Pipeline

Directed by Samantha Aldana

2023 00:08

Scripted Short Distribution

A farmer caring for her dying mother has an unexpected visitor.

ABOUT
BIO
SCREENINGS
AWARDS
PRESS
CREDITS
GALLERY

Genre

Horror Sci-Fi Women Thriller People of Color LGBTQ+ Latine Coming of Age

Synopsis

Beulah has almost given up. Her mother, Lottie, is dying and their farm is drowning in medical bills. A meteor falls from the sky, and Beulah finds a creature dead in the crater. When she touches the body, a cut on her hand heals and an identical cut appears on the creature. Beulah puts the thing in her bed, and when she wheels Lottie in, she realizes the creature is alive. Beulah forces it to touch Lottie, and it passes out. The creature wakes up with Lottie’s hand on its leg, and the sore that was on Lottie’s arm is on the creature’s arm now. It realizes it’s chained to the wall as Beulah covers its face. Light flashes outside, and Beulah sees more meteors falling from the sky.

Director Identity

Hispanic/Latine Mixed Race Additional Identities Woman First Generation she/her

Bio

Samantha Aldana is an award-winning Belizean-American director/writer. Her perspective is influenced by the magical realism and folklore storytelling traditions of her multicultural upbringing in Mississippi and the Caribbean. She is inspired by stories that use genre elements to explore the human condition and is most drawn to characters and stories that have often gone unseen.

Samantha is the recipient of the Belize Film Commissioner’s Emerging Storyteller Feature Film Award for her feature in development, LITTLE LYING WILD. This film won the WomeninFan Pitch at the Sitges Film Festival and was selected as a Breaking Through the Lens finalist. LITTLE LYING WILD has also participated in the Berlinale Talents, Tribeca Film Institute Network, Tribeca Writing in Unreal, and the Emerging Voices Program.

Samantha is an alum of the 2023-2024 Warner Brothers All Access Directors Program and the NBC Female Forward TV Directing Program. Samantha was selected to direct an original short film titled ANGELS for Disney/HULU’s Season 3 Bite-Size Huluween. The film is currently streaming on HULU and SHUTTER. ANGELS was invited to screen at over a dozen film festivals worldwide and was awarded the Best Supernatural Horror Film at Fear Fest and the Audience Award at Dark Bridges Film Festival.

Her previous short films have won numerous honors and have screened at festivals worldwide. Samantha holds a BA in Film Directing from Columbia College Chicago and is a Film Fatales and NALIP member. She is currently based in LA.

Screening History

Overlook Film Festival 2023

Cucalorus Film Festival 2023

Indy Shorts International Film Festival 2023

New Orleans Film Festival 2023

Awards History

Fear Fest 2023 - Best Supernatural Film

Dark Bridges Film Festival 2023 - Bronze Audience Award

Press

""Samantha Aldana’s short is beautifully shot and does well to build up tension whilst keeping our alien visitors largely in the shadows, adding to their mystique....""

Bloody Flicks

""With outstanding visuals and an incredibly engaging story, “Angels” is beautifully shot, well-acted, and spellbinding. More unnerving than overtly scary, this seven-minute film is nevertheless quite a masterful work of short horror filmmaking.""

Morbidly Beautiful

""...Angels taps into themes of faith, life after death, and whether we’re alone in the universe. This short film will hit particularly close to home for anyone who’s ever been a caregiver to an ailing family member. It has probably the most interesting premise of any of the short films here, but all it does it make us want more.""

Halloween Year

Credits

Actor - Betsy Borrego

Producer - Valerie Steinberg

Costume Designer - Megan Coates

Gallery

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