Parity Pipeline

Genre

Synopsis

The inspiration for HOLDING ON FOREVER came from an actual night out at karaoke when I was doing a dry month away from alcohol. I remember very viscerally how HEINOUS of an activity karaoke can be when you’re stone-cold sober and everyone around you has been drinking since 7PM ...and it’s 1:30AM. That feeling of social isolation in what can be the most connected group activity was something I wanted to capture from that night. Likewise, I have a few friends who are alcoholics who have expressed how difficult and isolating being sober can be. Generally, true alcoholics are very high functioning, and it isn’t until they become sober that all their methods of coping completely fall apart and life can actually get a lot worse. Knowing these stories from friends, and then incorporating some of that further feeling of isolation into the setting felt like an interesting exploration into sobriety in a society where socialization is often centered around alcohol. But what made me really want to round out this piece and turn it into a Jonze-esque stylized escalation at the end is that feeling when you meet a stranger and you feel an instant connection. I feel like as humans, there are so many people we meet and we think nothing of it, but every now and then you meet someone and you instantly feel a connection—like you’ve met before. Platonic, romantic, doesn’t matter—it’s a feeling of being fully seen or like stardust being reunited after billions of years and lightyears apart. While it might be rare, I feel like it happens more often than not, and sometimes these connections are people who stay in our lives forever—or sometimes they’re just a fleeting stranger who makes us feel seen and understood when we’re feeling lost and alone.