Overview

Birds of a Feather is a comedy-horror short in development with director Alice Vo and Clay Crane Productions.

On her birthday, Vietnamese-American teen Thanh Nhã (“Tanya”) spends the day with her friends Kayla and Cindy. Fuelled by K-pop and an elaborate spread, it becomes a full glam makeover whilst e her mother’s homemade chè thái goes untouched in the fridge. That night, having rejected her parents’ home-cooked meal in favour of an expensive “miracle” skin-whitening soap gifted by a friend, Tanya transforms, viscerally and irreversibly…

Themes

Vo frames the film as follows: it’s about assimilation as self-harm, internalized racism, and beauty standards as erasure, using genre horror to give shape to something she describes as “invisible but suffocating.” Tonally, the film sits between Heathers, Jawbreaker, and The Substance whilst being pastel and polite with an underlying tension that curdles by the third act.

Production Info

• Produced by: Clay Crane Productions
• Estimated runtime: 20 minutes
• Language: English, with Vietnamese dialogue subtitled
• Filming location: Los Angeles (3 locations, 2-3 shoot days)
• Genre: Comedy-Horror
• Planned festival targets: AAPI and genre festivals, including Beyond Fest and Viet Film Fest