Give Me the Backstory: Get to Know Liz Sargent, the Writer-Director of Take Me Home

One of the most exciting things about the Sundance Film Festival is having a front-row seat for the bright future of independent filmmaking. While we can learn a lot about the filmmakers from the 2023 Sundance Film Festival through the art that these storytellers share with us, there's always more we can learn about them as people. This year, we decided to get to the bottom of those artistic wells with our Backstory questionnaire!Writer-director Liz Sargent's films blend fiction and reality. As I find my grounding as a writer-director, I realize that the hearts of my stories are written from my emotional point of view, she says. Often my films are not reflecting on the past but trying to control my fear of the future.

Sargent's short film Take Me Home examines the very real fear of how a family with disabled individuals copes once the parents pass away. The reality of the scenario is heightened by Sargent's choice to cast her intellectually disabled sister Anna in one of the main roles. The set was my parents' home, my mother played herself, and I felt a need to protect Anna in this situation, where her mother would portray herself dying, she explains. So keeping my artistic clarity was a challenge when I was also deep in reality.

You can catch Take Me Home as part of the 2023 Sundance Film Festival Short Film Tour - check here for more information about dates and venues. Below, discover how Sargent got into filmmaking, one of her favorite memories from the process, and why this story needs to be told now.

LINK:	https://www.sundance.org/blogs/give-me-the-backstory-get-to-know-liz-s...
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