Sera Barbieri

A true story about a gay boy growing up in the collapsing USSR, his courageous mail-order bride mother, and their adventurous escape to Seattle in the 90s.

A customer support rep (Sera Barbieri, POTATO DREAMS OF AMERICA) monitoring late-night calls at an AI companionship service impersonates an artificial hostess to speak with a client that she’s developed affection for. Director Joanny Causse and screenwriter Stephanie Kwiatkowski have crafted an intimate heartbreaker that provokes in all the right ways, with Barbieri’s textured performance giving it the power of a dozen electrical grids. A story of profound loneliness and the disappointments of human nature.

Port Townsend, WA, is the setting for the aberrations of Lilith, a traumatized painter who lives largely in isolation. Her only confidante is Kat, an aspiring writer who cares for Lilith, though her boundaries of morality and professionalism are unclear. When Lilith decides to stop taking her medication, she begins to paint again for the first time since her trauma. By resuming her work, Lilith becomes increasingly obsessed with the alchemical process of creation and destruction.