2025 Films: Gillyfish

Gillyfish by Sarah Sellman
Ireland (Wisconsin Premiere)

Running Time: 11 minutes
Drama/ LGBTQ

Avalon Atmospheric Theater
2473 S Kinnickinnic Ave, Milwaukee, WI 53207

When GILLIAN takes on her partner’s identity to confront their father, she finds a connection she didn't expect in the strange exchange she has with him. A short about healing by proxy, and stepping into new identities.

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Director Bio:

Sarah is a queer, neurodivergent writer + director (pronouns- they, them) who uses genre narratives to explore the role of myth in distorting and healing personal and generational trauma. Born and raised in the agricultural community of Alamosa, Colorado, Sarah graduated from NYU’s Tisch, where they also studied Neuroscience and Ancient Religion. In television, Sarah worked as a Writer’s Assistant on Netflix’s BLACK SUMMER, for which they also wrote an episode. They have previously worked on shows at SyFy, Netflix and Amazon (Z-NATION, LORE). Sarah’s magically real pilot - COTTONWOOD - was selected as Series Fest's Writer’s Initiative’s Grand Prize Winner, presented at IFP’s Project Forum, featured in Deadline as a top un-produced pilot for 2020’s WeForShe List, and is currently in development with Brad Silberling (JANE THE VIRGIN, CHARMED). On the film side, their feature documentary - American Bear: An Adventure in the Kindness of Strangers - screened theatrically across the United States, and can be found online at Amazon, iTunes, and Hulu. Sarah’s short narrative - Hold Your Arms Out - was offered a fellowship at Hewlett-Packard’s inaugural post-production program at Sundance Film Festival, and screened at festivals across the country in 2018. Sarah’s work has been supported by IFP, Women In Film, Series Fest, The Stowe Story Labs, Cinestory, CDDP, Austin Film Festival and more. They are a founding member of THIRD SPACE artist’s collective — a group of artist-activist-witches working to bring about a new America.