Writer-director Goldie Jones based the short film “I’m Sorry, I Tried, I Love You” on a short story by a friend, writer G.G. Silverman, who experienced a home infestation like the one in the film. It recently played NewFilmmaker Los Angeles‘ In Focus: Female Cinema festival.
The film is about a mother who undergoes a surprising transformation because of the strange infestation.
“She actually had this infestation in her home,” Jones explains in an NFMLA interview with Danny DeLillo. “She had to get up at four in the morning and put on a hazmat suit and clean her house before they could go in certain rooms.”
As a writer, Silverman processed the experience on the page.
“She took that, naturally, into a horror space, because that’s who she is as an author,” Jones says.
Silverman’s short story gained popularity during the pandemic lockdowns because “a lot of people just really related to that trapped isolation feeling that the mother in the story experienced,” Jones says.
Watch the NFMLA interview with Goldie Jones, writer and director of “I’m Sorry, I Tried, I Love You”:
How Goldie Jones Met “I’m Sorry, I Tried, I Love You” Star Finnerty Steeves
Jones’ lead, Finnerty Steeves, is also a friend. Jones met the Orange Is the New Black star at a film festival, and knew her from somewhere.
“I just started talking to her because I recognized her and assumed that I knew her, so I just started talking to her like we were friends,” Jones recalls. “And I ultimately realized, ‘Oh I recognize you from TV, not because we’ve actually met in person.'”
They hit it off anyway. Jones wrote “‘I’m Sorry, I Tried, I Love You” with Steeves in mind, and emailed her the script.
“She sent me back an email immediately that was like ‘yes yes yes — I’ll just fly into town and sleep on your house,” Jones recalls.
Jones is a nonbinary, Wyoming-born writer/director, aerialist, and author with 20 years of production experience and a passion for circus arts. Their gritty genre stories center characters across the gender spectrum finding the glimmers of hope in the darker places in the world. They’re a Universal Writers Program Finalist, Stowe Story Labs Alumni, Stowe Launch Finalist, and WIF Mentee in the Directors Circle.
You can follow them on Instagram at @glitchgestaltgirl.
“I’m Sorry, I Tried, I Love You” was part of NFMLA’s March film festival celebrating up-and-coming female talent in front of and behind the camera. The program included two shorts programs, along with award-winning filmmaker Dawn Jones Redstone’s debut feature.
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The day began with InFocus: Female Cinema Shorts I, a collection of films that explore motherhood, fertility, birth, and reproductive choice from a wide range of perspectives. The programming continued with the Los Angeles premiere of “Mother of Color,” the first feature from award-winning writer-director Dawn Jones Redstone. The night concluded with InFocus: Female Cinema Shorts II, an eclectic mix of short form work from emerging talent, whose stories explored body image, intimate relationships, work and its many struggles.
NFMLA showcases films by filmmakers of all backgrounds throughout the year in addition to its special InFocus programming, which celebrates diversity, inclusion, and region. All filmmakers are welcome and encouraged to submit their projects which will be considered for all upcoming NFMLA Festivals, regardless of the InFocus programming.
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