One of our professors Rani Deighe Crowe has recently seen great success with her short film, Safety State. It involves “A near-future road trip where a lesbian and a gay couple flee to a safe state in dystopian America.” (from IndieGogo). It has currently been screened at over 40 film festivals and other venues.

Below is a short interview with Rani about Safety State.

How long did it take you to create Safety State? What was the workflow like?

In September of 2022, I met with my collaborator and we talked about all the things we were thinking about. And she had been worrying about and having conversations about where could she go if the political situation gets too scary. With so many bills being introduced that threaten women and LGBTQ people and the Supreme Court rolling back national protections on rights…. Where can we go?

And that was start of this dystopian near future short film about where can we go when they take away our rights to exist.

I sat down and started writing the story of a lesbian couple fleeing Ohio for New England as travel bans were going into effect. And imagining that they needed to pair up with a gay male couple to pass for straight couples if they got stopped. My collaborator gave me feedback until we got that first draft. Then I came back to Muncie and continued rewrites and we started fundraising- grants, crowdsourcing, personal debt. My collaborator was in Ohio working with a co-producer we brought on to help with logistics. We were finding equipment and crew and actors and locations. We had regular meetings and updates. I was working on script rewrites and art design, researching images and buying and building props and costumes and set dec. They were sending me pictures of locations and actors, I was sending them rewrites and pictures of art design. We had 25 drafts by the time we were in production.

We did principal photography over a week in April. I drove to Athens and spent a day setting up the art in the first location and coordinating the meals.

After finishing the shoot, our editor flew out from London UK and spent ten days in Athens, Ohio working with my director making a rough cut. They sent me some cuts for feedback. Then my director worked with the animator and we got several cuts of the animation and we would give notes. My director worked with our composer and would send me several drafts of the music. I worked with some actors in Muncie to direct and record most of the voiceovers, and we started to submit our work in progress by December for a couple big festivals, premiering at the British Film Institute’s Flare Film Festival in London and having our USA premiere at the Athens International Film Festival in Athens, Ohio.

What initially inspired the themes of Safety State?

See above. While it is set in a dystopian setting where the couples are escaping the Midwest, the story arc is about the evolution of the relationship between the people on the journey as they face the threatening world.

What do you hope people can take away from the film?

I want people who have been feeling this fear, to feel seen. And I want people who haven’t to understand what a lot of people have felt.

How might you compare it to other works you have created/collaborated on?

A lot of my films are in response to things happening in the world- Texting: A Love Story was about the increasing disconnect in personal relationships as our world became more digital, Quiet on Set was a response to the Me Too movement and an increase in intimacy coordinators in film and theater, and our current short is about the political divide in the US impacting family relationships. Safety State is a reaction to what is happening in the world and how a lot of people are feeling.

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Lastly, a list of some prominent screenings for safety state:

BFI Flare, London, UK

Athens International Film and Video Festival, Athens, Ohio

Indy Film Festival, Indianapolis, Indiana – won Hoosier Lens Best Narrative Film

QFest St. Louis, St. Louis, Missouri

KASHISH Pride Film Festival, Mumbai, India

Queer North Film Festival, Sudbury, Canada

Reel Out Charlotte Film Festival, Charlotte, North Carolina

Chain Film Festival, New York City, New York

FilmPride – Brighton and Hove Pride LGBTQIA+ TV Festival

Sheffield Live, Latest! Brighton, NVTV Belfast

OutSouth Queer Film Festival, Durham, North Carolina

Broad Humor Film Festival, Los Angeles, California

The Women’s Film Festival, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

Macon Film Festival, Macon, Georgia

Veracruz Itinerant Film Festival, Guanajuato, Mexico

South Dakota Film Festival, Aberdeen, South Dakota

Cinema Diverse: Palm Springs LGBTQ+ Film Festival, Palm Springs, CA

Down East Flick Fest, Kinston and Greenville, North Carolina

Milwaukee International Short Film Festival, Wisconsin

Fargo-Moorhead LGBT Film Festival, Fargo, North Dakota

Out on Film: Atlanta’s LGBTQ Film Festival, Atlanta, Georgia

Charlotte Film Festival, Charlotte, North Carolina

Honolulu Rainbow Film Festival, Honolulu, Hawaii

Virginia Queer Film Festival, Norfolk, Virginia

Cindependent Film Festival, Cincinnati, Ohio

Duluth Superior Film Festival, Duluth, Minnesota

Seattle Queer Film Festival, Seattle, Washington

Utah Queer Film Festival, Salt Lake City, Utah

Vues D’en Face Festival International du Film Gay et Lesbien, Grenoble, France

Reading Film Festival, Reading, Pennsylvania

Twin Cities Film Festival, Minneapolis, Minnesota

Queer Fear Film Festival, Winston- Salem, North Carolina

Arlington International Film Festival, Arlington, Massachusetts

Fort Lauderdale International Film Festival, Fort Lauderdale, Florida

Tels Quels LGBT Film Festival, Brussels, Belgium