PRETENDERS is a coming-of-age stoner comedy that rebels against common film portrayals of LGBTQ characters
“Queer struggle and trauma is often fetishized in movies,” says writer, director and editor Tristen Stafford, who is queer. “I wanted to write a movie that rebelled against that, with goofy stoner characters who aren’t necessarily struggling with that aspect of themselves.”
The story begins with Jasper (Libby Larkin) and Hannah (Emma Grace Myers), two “hometown heroes'' who never fully grew up. They reunite with Nick (Diata Coleman), their childhood best friend and recent college graduate, and the trio takes a road trip to Hannah’s family beach house in Maine where Hannah and Jasper come out to Nick as a couple.Meanwhile, getting black-out drunk on a dirty beach just doesn’t hit the same anymore and the trio struggles to slip back into their old debauchery while Hannah questions the seriousness of her relationship with Jasper. They liven up their vacation by pretending to be other people.
PRETENDERS is available no until 30th March 2021, at the CINEJOY Virtual Film Festival, which features the films of the Cinequest Film Festival.
PRETENDERS was recently accepted into the NYC Indie Film Festival, June 6 - 13.
