A last ditch effort to salvage their childhood bonds doesn’t go as planned when a group of tech-addicted 20-somethings is confronted with unexpected change.
A group of childhood friends get together for a casual goodbye party before one of them moves across the country. Jordan, bound for LA, hosts the splintered group with the goal of having one nice evening together before she leaves. Armed with nostalgia and optimism, she attempts to contrive fun, which proves difficult given everyone’s shortened attention span. With each incoming notification and incidental scroll, their tenuous connection weakens, and intimacy grows harder to reach. Confronted by impending change and the loss that comes with it, they turn to their devices for comfort. Lost in their own personalized, digital universe, these friends fall prey to distraction and isolation. Little Boxes is a portrait of people grasping for authentic connection while technology systematically interferes.
Hannah Cullen, director shared that her inspiration for creating Little Boxes emerged from a personal use of technology. As a millennial/gen Z cusp, she grew up during the dawn iChat, her teenage-hood self-raised by infant and under-researched belief that she should be connected at all times. As an adult, she often found herself on apps she hadn’t intended to open, scrolling mindlessly until she eventually felt depleted, anxious and insecure.
She started to feel aware that her experience of reality was largely being dictated by an object the size of her hand, she started to research the addictiveness of technology by reading nonfiction on the subject.
Little Boxes depicts both the hyper-real and the surreal in an effort to capture the lived and internal experience of being addicted to technology.
Film is written and directed by Hannah Cullen. Featuring Avery Jai Andrews, Ramiro Batista, Quinn Dixon, Maggie Joy, Liam Mackenzie, Nyah Maudrina, Saddie Scott, and Sonya Venugopal.
Premiers, Thursday, October 26 at the Bushwick Film Festival.
Watch the trailer: