Filmmaker's Statement

Simonee Chichester

Him & Her is a short film with a moving encounter at its centre. It tracks a conversation between two strangers who seemingly have nothing in common, and meet by surprise because of a misunderstanding. Their chance meeting quickly turns a corner when they engage in a disarmingly honest exchange that strips them both of their inhibitions, and ultimately brings them together.

I was inspired to write Him & Her in response to the Me Too movement. At a highly charged time with Me Too, Times Up and Black Lives Matter, I questioned whether the pendulum of activism, however necessary, could swing too far as to dismiss innocent connection, nuance and differing perspectives.

I made Him & Her to share my perspective that this type of encounter is possible and even necessary - a chance meeting where we rise above our biases and trust our instincts in order to have frank, open connections through which to create common ground.

I scripted two characters that represent two sides of myself - a complex distillation of who I am: the push and the pull, the confident and the insecure, the black and the white.

Him & Her is a provocative film that will drive some important conversations that we need and should be able to have. 

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