LOGLINE: A cellphone theft on Christmas Eve leads to an unexpected love story across class lines.

GENRE: Romance, coming of age.

SYNOPSIS: At seventeen, DK is a seasoned pickpocket with no plan to work or study. Just before Christmas, he steals a bag from a stranger on a ferry. Unlocking the victim’s phone reveals Olivia, a young, privileged socialite whose curated online life immediately fascinates him. Meanwhile, DK’s father, a former tugboat captain, goes missing. The eviction notice on their apartment door gives DK only a few days to come up with the rent money. DK quickly finds himself oscillating between two equally seductive forms of escape: extorting money from Olivia or trading his fractured reality for Olivia’s curated online world.

DIRECTOR’S STATEMENT: Stream explores Gen-Z’s coming-of-age disorientation and romantic yearning. Shot primarily on waterways and in the seaport district of Red Hook, the film captures a rarely seen New York for this modern-day L’Atalante, where young people are far from being on the same boat.

Visually, I contrasted DK’s corroded industrial world with Olivia’s manicured jet-setter existence, romanticizing neither. The ferry where they first meet is a metaphor for the liminal space between worlds that cannot connect but may briefly collide. With Stream, I explore how flawed but charming characters manage to find connection and meaning in a world that often offers neither.

Film Stills

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