Student filmmakers tackle queer love through flowers growing in your lungs

Anticipation, amazement and excitement buzzed in the air as lights flashed across the screen in the SSA Auditorium, and pride shone on students’ faces as they were celebrated for their art. But as one particular story unfolded onscreen, a hush fell over the audience, completely immersed in the gripping narrative. Standout among the films presented at the April 10 Cosmic Film Festival was “Hanahaki,” an emotional film celebrating queerness, identity, love and acceptance. 

The festival, hosted by the Student Union and Activities Advisory Council, screened 18 original works by UTD students passionate about the arts throughout the evening. All artists and filmmakers were considered for different awards from Best Film, Best Actor, Best Mixed Media and many more. A collaboration between five student filmmakers, “Hanahaki” follows a seemingly happy group of friends through a journey of self-discovery and difficult truths. 

The story focuses on the main character, Ophelia, as she grapples with the fact that she is not in love with her boyfriend Emmett but in fact in love with their friend Dawn, while incorporating Hanahaki disease, a fictional illness where a person coughs up flower petals because of their love being unrequited. As Emmett coughs up flowers and blood throughout the film, a deeper discussion emerges around Ophelia unpacking the feelings she has about lack of control over her life, not knowing who she is and the fear of judgement for not acting how others expect her to regarding her sexuality. Lauren Rodriguez, ATEC junior and the film’s director, and her girlfriend, writer Ashley Tone, said the queer experience is central to “Hanahaki’s” message. 

“The story is about knowing who you are and accepting that,” Tone said. “When we write something together, it has something to do with being queer because … we think it’s really important for people to see themselves in the things that they make, right?” 

Rodriguez said she believes it is vital to have queer representation in films and noted the importance of queer storytelling. 

“I think it’s about queer people, specifically feminine queers having to overcome comphet [compulsory heterosexuality] and kind of unlearn what they’ve been taught their whole lives,” Rodriguez said. “I came out queer when I was 16, everyone around me has always known since I was a kid, and having to unlearn what I’ve been taught in society to do was the hardest thing I think I’ve ever had to do.” 

Tone said the “Hanahaki” team made the film during UTDTV’s 72-hour film challenge earlier this semester. Students participating in the challenge were tasked with creating a film in 72 hours, and every group had to incorporate a specific word into their film. The word they were given was “lungs.” 

“There’s a trope in Japanese media that’s hanahaki and it’s when flowers grow in your lungs, and I was like, perfect,” Tone said. “Something that has to do with lungs that I have great knowledge on. That’s going to be our film.” 

Rodriguez said Tone was the one who came up with the idea for “Hanahaki,” and that it was her idea to have the twist at the end of the story where it is revealed that Ophelia is queer.  

“Since Ashley and I are both queer filmmakers, most of our films tend to tell queer stories,” Rodriguez said. “That’s how we came up with it.” 

Tone said filming “Hanahaki” was hectic, as she and the rest of the team had only 72 hours to create a story, write a script, cast the roles and film. Their filming process started on the second day, having written the script the night before. Tone described it as chaotic because they had to get everyone together to film in multiple locations all day. 

“We had a three-person crew, so it consisted of me as director, Cristobal [Santamaria] as DP [director of photography], and Ashley was our sound, Brandon Patrick was our PA [production assistant],” Rodriguez said. “We had a very small crew which made it very limiting and challenging, but at the same time so rewarding when we finished.” 

The cinematography opens with many beautiful shots of flowers, butterflies, and little bits and pieces of nature, capturing the playful and close-knit energy of the friend group in the mini-montage scene at the beginning. The direction and placement of the characters is subtle but intentional, seen especially when viewing the film a second time knowing how Ophelia feels about Dawn, as she steals quick glances at Dawn during the montage scene. 

“I make a Pinterest board of general vibes that I want for the film as well as specific shots,” Rodriguez said. “With Cristobal being my DP, I would show him, ‘Hey, this is my pin on Pinterest, I want a shot that looks like this.’ The shot where Dylan [Emmett’s actor] is coughing up the flowers, the shot of Sierra [Ophelia’s actor] laying in bed in a bird’s eye view, all came from Pinterest.” 

Because of the time crunch, however, Rodriguez said they came up with a lot of the shots on the spot and had to put their heads together to figure out what they wanted this film to look like. 

“For the last scene where it’s the two girls in the theatre, I wanted it to feel like an isolation almost, like they’re in a room that’s usually filled with people but it’s just them,” Rodriguez said. “It was a lot of, ‘What are we trying to tell and achieve in this scene?’ and then, ‘How do we do that with the camera?’” 

Tone and Rodriguez said they plan to submit “Hanahaki” to more film festivals in the near future after some additional postproduction work and refining some of the editing. Both said they are also planning to make more short films in the future. 

“I think filmmaking, even if it’s not something I go into professionally or a career, it’ll always be something I will be doing one way or another…whether it’s in front of the camera or behind.” Rodriguez said. 

Tone and Rodriguez said they believe many viewers can relate to the film’s conflicting feelings of identity, love and being scared of self-discovery, and that freeing oneself through seeking a new path leads to new personal truths.  

“That’s really the heart of the film is that monologue,” Tone said. “People have all different paths in life and whatnot. We really want people to take away the knowledge that it’s OK to not know who you are, and it’s OK to figure that out and the world’s not going to end if you figure something else out.”