Appetite
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Synopsis: Music and burlesque dancers seduce the patrons at an open love party. Jack, an aging hedge fund CEO, becomes increasingly uncomfortable as his wife, Ruby – a powerful, smart woman – meets Rex, a non-binary burlesque performer, who ends up taking her home. Upon leaving the party, Jack, sad and alone, meets a new friend, Tanya. He convinces her to come to his apartment and realizes Ruby isn’t the only one who has needs that can be filled outside of their marriage.
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Starring
Jeffrey Weber (Jack)
Jordan Bayne (Ruby)
Nivi Canela (Rex)
Sibyl Santiago (Anne)
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Director's Statement
Appetite and desire are often used interchangeably. Food metaphors are deeply embedded into the language of sex. But having an “appetite” for something can be fleeting. One minute you crave it the next you don’t. This is where our lead character, Jack, begins his journey – hoping that his wife Ruby’s new hunger for sex outside their marriage will dissipate before she ever gets a chance to taste. Our opening scene illuminates a new world of “flexible love” where people actively meet up to find new entanglements for “whatever.” Each womxn at this party is more intimidating to Jack than the last. The womxn are confident, sensual, embracing of their own sexuality and their own desires which is not something Jack can say for himself. We don’t often see men filmed like this in cinema, where each shot is designed to make him feel at a distinct loss of control. While he’s the character we’re following, the power isn’t his.
When Jack returns to his apartment with Tanya, an asexual, vegan, the lighting shifts drastically from the erotic reds and purples of the party to the cool blues and oranges of an intimate, non-sexual encounter. This is where we flip the script on the trope that it’s womxn who stop wanting sex in marriages while their husbands fantastize about younger options. When faced with a night alone with a beautiful, young, womxn, all Jack really wants is connection (and maybe somebody to eat strawberries with).
When confronted with the reality of our own appetites, we don’t always get what we want but sometimes we get what we need.
Director's Bio
Stacey is a multi-award-winning actress and filmmaker. Stacey’s feature directorial debut Triple Threat is having its world premiere at Oscar qualifying Cinequest film festival and is repped for sales by Mis En Scene. She wrote, produced, and starred in her first feature film “Landing Up” which in addition to landing festival Best Actress and Best Feature nominations landed distribution with The Orchard and is currently available worldwide. Her short film “Stronger Together” was recently acquired by Shoreline Entertainment after having it’s world premiere at NewFest and her short film “Head” is streaming on REVRY. The script she penned, “The Other Side” was selected by the screenwriting website THE BLACK LIST as a Top 10 Finalist in the Hasty Pudding Fellowship for a screenwriter focusing on satire and social commentary. That script was further selected to be a part of the Black List Table Reads series and was produced as a radio play which she starred in alongside Darren Criss, Eddie Kaye Thomas, and Jerry Adler.
She is currently in development on the feature film sex comedy, HEAD (Outfest Screenwriting Lab finalist), the feature psychosexual horror film, BLUE MOON FIRE, and the genre-defying rom-com SOMETHING JEWISH. In addition she has several other projects currently in development.
She is the co-founder of production company Besties Make Movies with close collaborator Magarita Zhitnikova and WIWU Productions with her husband and partner Dani Tenenbaum.