FORTUNATE COUNTRY
a short film about the love we choose and the love that chooses us
I wrote, produced, co-directed, and starred in the award-winning short film, Fortunate Country, in 2018. The film is a modern adaptation of the 1913 novel O Pioneers! by Willa Cather and tells the unexpected love story of two young women in the rural Midwest.
Fortunate Country explores LGBTQ issues, identity, finding your truth, the nostalgia of home, and taking risks for the things we want most. The short film was written, produced, directed, and performed entirely by Nebraskan women. We shot the film 90 miles from Willa Cather’s childhood home in Red Cloud Nebraska, aiming to capture the unspoiled beauty of country life. It was important to us to reflect the quiet oppression that runs deep in this part of the country in contrast to the open landscape and simple life. The conflict of the story is subtle, and exists in the complicated question of confronting the truth about oneself.
“Fortunate country, that is one day to receive hearts like Alexandra's into its bosom, to give them out again in the yellow wheat, in the rustling corn, in the shining eyes of youth!”
-Willa Cather, O Pioneers!