SUCH A PRETTY GIRL tells the story of Meg, who has returned to her childhood home to help her aging father. When her twelve-year-old uncovers a long-forgotten relic from her past, Meg must decide in a matter of moments who she'll protect: her parent or her child.
It’s a sunny Sunday morning, and sweet ten-year-old Finn shyly admires herself in a bedroom mirror, twirling the skirt of a homemade yellow dress to and fro. She is revealed to us in dream-like pieces of the whole: a bare foot dances on the sun-dappled floor, tinted balm stains a lip pink, her delicate fingers tie a yellow ribbon into her short hair.
A knock on the door breaks Finn’s reverie as her mother, Meg, enters to remind Finn they’re leaving for church in five minutes. At the sight of Finn in her old dress — a poignant relic from Meg’s childhood — tense silence fills the room, broken only by the booming voice of Finn’s grandfather, Frank, calling for Meg’s help. As Finn tries to explain, Meg leaves, abruptly closing the door behind her. Left alone and embarrassed, Finn pulls the yellow ribbon from her hair.
Meg finds her father waiting for her, a tie in his trembling hand. She fixes it for him. Frank instructs her to make sure Finn is ready to leave, lest they be late for church, but when he looks up, Meg is already gone.
Screwing up her courage, Meg re-enters Finn’s room, but the child is nowhere to be seen. Something else catches her eye — Finn’s yellow ribbon. She peers at it closely, her face a mixture of emotions. And then she spies the dress, hastily abandoned on the bed. Meg sits with it, carefully examining the hand-done stitching, lost in thought.
Frank enters and mistakes Meg’s obvious upset as grief over losing her mom, with whom she sewed that dress so long ago. He thanks her for returning to her childhood home to help him in his time of need. He asks where Finn is, and we turn to the doorway to see…
An awkward, sensitive ten-year-old boy in pressed church clothes and a tie. Face scrubbed clean. All traces of the happy, dreamy girl we first met, erased.
Satisfied everyone’s ready, Frank heads downstairs, beckoning the others to follow. Finn avoids Meg’s gaze, desperate to pretend the morning never happened. Meg waits patiently until Finn finally looks up to discover that Meg holds the yellow ribbon out between them. It’s an apology, an offering, a promise of love. It’s a start.
Relief and gratitude wash over Finn who reaches out in kind. For a moment, they hold the ribbon between them, a bridge on a road they’re destined to walk together. One that only they know about. For now.
Deborah Puette is a queer, L.A. based creator working across film, television, and the American theater who credits her success as an emerging screenwriter and director to her twenty-five years as an award-winning actor.
Puette’s debut feature as writer and co-director, CASH FOR GOLD, is from her very first full-length script. Puette also stars in the film. CASH FOR GOLD won the Audience Award at the prestigious Burbank International Film Festival before being released on VOD in February of 2025.
The Alliance of Women Film Journalists raves, “Deborah Puette makes an auspicious directorial debut with CASH FOR GOLD…there’s no denying the power of [her] storytelling…[it] will leave you looking forward to whatever Puette does next.” The Chicago Reader calls it “a courageous repudiation of the cruel path this country has committed itself to,” while Film Threat praises the film as “a brick house-built drama,” highlighting its authentic depiction of life's challenges, and top critic Nell Minnow from RogerEbert.com says “it is the compassion the film has for its characters that is the film’s true grace.”
CASH FOR GOLD is now available on Amazon Prime, Apple TV, and other VOD platforms courtesy of Freestyle Digital Media.
Since then, Puette wrote, directed, and produced SUCH A PRETTY GIRL, a short film based on her semi-autobiographical TV pilot, PLAY LIKE A GIRL (Finalist, 2021 Writers Lab underwritten by Meryl Streep, Nicole Kidman, and Oprah Winfrey). The film was Executive Produced by Robina Riccitiello (DÍDI, MUTT). The short film also serves as a proof-of-concept for her second feature which is currently in development with and will be produced by Rachel Stander’s company, A Season of Rain.
In the television space, Puette has written several pilots, the most recent of which, BLAZE, has been recognized by the GLAAD x Blacklist, Warner Brothers Writers Workshop, the NBC Writers Program, and was the recipient of Roadmap Writers Jump Start Grand Prize.
As an actor, Puette has recurred and guest starred on shows across virtually every network and streamer and has played lead and supporting roles in features for Disney, Miramax, and many independent production companies.
On stage, she's carried lead roles in over 30 plays and 100 workshops and her work has been nominated for every major theater acting award in both Chicago and Los Angeles. She’s the recipient of Chicago’s Joseph Jefferson Award, Best Actress; L.A. Weekly Award, Best Actress; Los Angeles Critics Circle Award, Best Solo Performance; and, as a producer, the Ovation Award for Best Production.
World Premiere - Minneapolis St. Paul International Film Festival (2025)
Tallgrass Film Festival (2025)
Sidewalk Film Festival (2025)
European Premiere - Lieden International Film Festival (2025)
Berkshire International Film Festival (2025)
Port Townsend Film Festival - Best Narrative Short Film (2025)
Dunedin Film Festival - Best Narrative Short Film (2025)
Executive Producer - Robina Riccitiello
Colorist - Natasha Leonnet
Actor - Sarah Drew
Producer - Rachel Stander, A Season of Rain
