A year into the Covid-19 pandemic, Sharka, a scrappy expressionistic painter, finds respite from the isolation of her small apartment on a park bench. When Bridget, a self-possessed lone traveler dragging a suitcase, encroaches and sits down next to her, angry sparks fly until the two find unexpected common ground.
SYNOPSIS
Two strangers cross paths in an NYC park a year into the COVID-19 pandemic. Sharka, a scrappy artist, stations herself at a local Brooklyn park in an attempt to paint and overcome the artistic block that she’s battled since the beginning of the pandemic. When an obtrusive lone traveler, Bridget, plants herself on the bench next to Sharka, tempers flare. Neither Bridget nor Sharka have been this close to a stranger for the past year. Although they’ve both recently received the new vaccine, they’re still afraid to be close to another person. Eventually, the two break down and share stories of their aloneness since lockdown, and their respective longing for another person’s touch.
Director Statement
The two female characters in AFTER THE DELUGE spoke to me upon my first reading of the script. I was taken by the depth of their emotions, their quick wit, and their unabashed vulnerability. Their brief encounter in a pandemic-altered New York City resonated deeply, and I was struck by the ways in which John Patrick Shanley’s narrative captures a time—wracked by phases of isolation, disconnection, and confusion—that mirrored my own experience of it.
Female-driven stories that reveal messy, imperfect characters who are vulnerable and yet strong are at the center of my cinematic work and vision. I saw these qualities in Sharka and Bridget immediately. Despite their edge, there is a softness. Although they are each quirky and unique, they are also relatable. Like the rest of us, they, too, are wearily trying to find their way forward in uncertain times. I continue to admire the ways in which Bridget and Sharka each take personal risks to connect with each other, even when there are no guarantees.
Over the course of the pandemic, and still, the natural world is a respite from our personal bubbles—our cramped apartments, our social media feeds, and our diminishing worlds. Even a park in New York City reminds us of the cycles of life and opportunities for growth. With AFTER THE DELUGE, I want to give folks a glimmer of hope, a reminder that perhaps ‘this is where we begin again.
ABOUT FILMMAKER(S)
Director Tara Young
AFTER THE DELUGE marks the narrative directorial debut of longtime non-fiction filmmaker Tara Young.
Over the past twenty-plus years, NYC-based Tara Young has produced, shot, and edited arts-and-culture programming for numerous unique and diverse organizations. She has created original content for Criterion Collection, Sundance TV, Alaska Dispatch News, and Etsy. Nominated for four Northwest Regional Emmys and winner of the 2014 Regional Edward R. Murrow Award for Feature Reporting, Young’s work has been featured on The Criterion Channel, Sundance TV, the Atlantic, and as “Staff Picks” on Vimeo. She was the in-house filmmaker at Criterion Collection for six years and is currently a freelance director and editor.
Cinematographer / Producer
Charlotte Hornsby
Charlotte Hornsby is a NYC-based cinematographer whose work has garnered attention at festivals such as SXSW, BAM Cinemafest, BFI London Film Festival, and the Sundance Film Festival where the short Lucia Before and After, she shot for director Anu Valia and the short Hair Wolf she shot for director Mariama Diallo won The Short Film Jury Award for U.S. Fiction in 2017 and 2018. She filmed additional photography for DP Ashley Connor on Josephine Decker’s Madeline’s Madeline which was nominated for a 2019 Independent Spirit Award for Cinematography. Charlotte’s work has played at MoMA and the Brooklyn Museum, appeared on the Criterion Channel, HBO, Hulu, Pitchfork, Nowness and appeared in New York Magazine and The New Yorker. The ASC featured her most recent film, Master, as a visual standout of the 2022 Sundance Film Festival. The thriller, which stars Regina Hall, is currently streaming on Amazon Prime.
Actor
Trae Harris
Trae Harris is a Los Angeles-based actress. Born and raised in Baltimore, and bred in Brooklyn, Harris is a multidisciplinary artist who incorporates the poetry of movement, the written word, visual aesthetics, and esoteric mysticism to reimagine and explore the healing journeys of queer women of color in the Americas through storytelling. Harris’s professional acting career began as a teenager with a role on HBO’s The Wire. They then starred in the Sundance feature Newlyweeds (2013), And I And Silence (2014) at New York City’s Signature Theater, Netflix series Orange Is the New Black (2014), Didn’t I Ask For Tea? (2015), Ori Inu: In Search of Self (2015), Bodymore (2018), Hair Wolf (2019) winner of US Fiction Awards for shorts at Sundance, The Vacation (2022) winner of the Directors Award for shorts at Sundance 2023, as well as various web series.
Actor
Grace Rex
Grace Rex is a New York City-based actress. Her credits include recurring roles on television in Severance (Apple TV+), The Good Wife (CBS), and Dispatches from Elsewhere (AMC). Her film credits include The Secret Life of Walter Mitty (Dir. Ben Stiller), The Dilemma (Dir. Ron Howard), Contagion (Dir. Steven Soderbergh) and indie gems like Inspector Ike (Dir. Graham Mason) and Women Who Kill (Dir. Ingrid Jungermann). On stage, she has appeared in new plays at Lincoln Center and Second Stage (Uptown) and has performed regionally at Steppenwolf Theatre and The Denver Center.
Executive Director
Beth Levison
Beth Levison is an award-winning producer/director based in NYC. Most recently, she executive produced GRAND THEFT HAMLET (SXSW, 2024) and produced A PHOTOGRAPHIC MEMORY (True/False 2024). Her 2022 producing effort, THE MARTHA MITCHELL EFFECT, premiered at Sundance, launched on Netflix, and was nominated for a 2023 Academy Award (Best Documentary Short), while STORM LAKE, which she directed alongside DP Jerry Risius and also produced (Independent Lens, 2022), was shortlisted by the IDA as one of the best films of 2021. Other producing credits include WOMEN IN BLUE (Independent Lens, 2021), Emmy-nominated PERSONAL STATEMENT (PBS, 2018), and 32 PILLS (HBO, 2017). Levison is a co-founder of the Documentary Producers Alliance, teaching faculty with Sarah Lawrence College, and a member of the Academy.
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