Relationship Killers, a tense and eccentric LGBTQ+ social short by up-and-coming writer-director, stand up comedian, and mental illness advocate Noah A Waters III will celebrate its World Premiere at the Golden State Film Festival.
The film stars Lexsy McKowen (Bedegraine Blythe), Assia Lau’ren (Bravien Blythe), Jerry G. Angelo (Doctor Dee), E. Talley II (Too Tomlinson), Janet Lopez (Crying Woman), and Kadrolsha Ona Carole (Mrs. Dee); and premieres at the Chinese Theatre in Hollywood on February 26th at 9:30pm.
Relationship Killers exposes the complications of the struggle with romantic relationships and mental health in marriage. The 11-min black comedy takes a look at what happens when two deeply damaged newlyweds go to their first session of marriage counseling. The film intensifies tenfold when the therapy session gets extremely uncomfortable as the characters begin to divulge the last portions of their partly hidden dark souls to one another while trying to maintain a level of agape style love.
All married couples have secrets, but none like theirs.
“In my work, I choose to use the phrase ‘mental illness’ instead of ‘mental health’ not because I want to increase the darkness around the subject matter but because I want to assist in erasing the stigma around mental disorders. I feel as though the phrase or term mental health is more of a light-hearted self-care term compared to mental illness which is what I consider my own personal struggle.” says director Noah A Waters III.
“As a storyteller, psychology is one of the most interesting parts of character development. In Relationship Killers, I was focused on my characters’ cognitive dissonance and mental illness issues, rather than their singular identities and demographics. I wanted to explore what it’s like when you have two protagonists who love each other with a love that’s so severe and passionate that it’s the only thing that is more severe than the mental illness issues going on inside of them.” he adds.
Watch the teaser trailer for Relationship Killers.