wish u a good life (2021)
Documentary Short
7m 05s

edited, animated, and scored
by Lola Bean Constantino

wish u a good life reimagines what an anonymous chat online would look like if the two strangers met on a subway. The conversation took place on 2/21/21 between the filmmaker and an anonymous user on y99.in

Many people were uninterested and left my chat log but eventually, I met Nick from Greece. We wrote back and forth for an hour or so before he logged off to go to bed. It was so amazing to me that I just interacted with someone on a different continent, and we were able to discuss some very personal stuff with one another. From there, I used animation to reimage my conversation with Nick. This is what I love about animation; its ability to visualize spaces that only exist virtually or in my imagination. Overall, despite the many frustrating hours of editing and premiere crashing on my home computer, I learned so much while editing this film and hope that someday I can interact with Nick in person.

I started working on wish u a good life (2021) in January 2021. I was so burnt out from zoom university and —especially as a film student— frustrated with my inability to go out into the pandemic-ridden world and shoot live-action. I found myself in a Documentary II class and thought about what I could do given the circumstances. And then it dawned on me, why go out into the world to interview people when you can do just that online! From there, I found myself spending hours in anonymous chat rooms attempting to redirect horny interactions into deeper conversations.