Amelia's Closet

Halima Lucas

WRITER/DIRECTOR: Halima Lucas SYNOPSIS: Amelia’s Closet is a semi-autobiographical coming of age short film about an 11-year-old girl, Amelia who is endlessly bullied and left feeling powerless at school. In attempt to reclaim a sense of power, she steals from the kids bullying her but shamefully hides the items in her closet. She will be forced to confront the hidden items in her closet and find true sense of empowerment in a world that seeks to push young Black girls like her into the margins. SPECIAL SHOUT OUT to the talent and crew who made this film possible with gaff tape and prayer. Thank you. DIRECTOR'S STATEMENT: I was trying to come up with a story to tell for my thesis project and I figured since I loved writing about kids, I might be inspired by visiting my old elementary school. I hadn’t been back there since my eighth grade promotion and I thought the experience would be exciting and nostalgic. As soon as I pulled in front of the school, I didn’t feel nostalgia, I felt pain, anger, and nausea. Through the bars of the school, I could see a young misunderstood Halima. She was sad, alone, and voiceless. Deep down in that pain, I knew this girl wanted the world to know her story. In that moment Amelia’s Closet was born. From the outside looking in, Amelia would be described as a “bad kid”. She is angry, she steals, and she even resembles the image of what the world says a bad kid looks like. The story I cared to tell however would not a view of Amelia from the outside, but an experience of the world through her eyes. With this inside look, the audience can see that Amelia is smart, caring, and comes from a great home - nothing like what people assume. It is the isolation in school and antagonizing from her classmates that bring forth her thieving behavior. The story quickly shifts from being about a thieving delinquent to a young girl desperately trying to find a sense of power in a disempowering world. My vision for this project was two fold. I wanted to reveal a new way of looking at the Amelias in the world so that they can be better understood and served. My hope is that people question the way they think about “bad” children like Amelia. I also want to show kids like her, that their lives are worth more than the superficial opinions of other people and to not become the monsters people make them out to be. It is a message for those who desperately feel that the only way to get power is by taking it from others. Amelia learns that true power comes from within and the ability to not let anyone else take it from her. This film was really about bending the bars the locked away Amelia’s voice and opening those closets full of pain. It was about bringing light and life to the plight of children like her, validating their experiences and hopefully showing it for the first to the world. I’m thrilled to bring the story of a young Black girl to the screen and bring forth the image of an attentive and caring Black father (which is an image rarely seen on screen). I’m proud to explore major social issues such as bulling, lack of equity/access in education and its effect on marginalized youth. Most of all, I am proud to explore these issues through the experience of a young Black girl searching for a sense empowerment and finding it with the help of her dad.