Céline Roustan
After a one night stand, Sonya wakes up hungover and in a desperate need of Plan B. Getting to the pharmacy will prove slightly more challenging than expected, even with Tom, her companion from the evening before, doing his best to help. In My Eyes Are Up Here, director Nathan Morris crafts a romcom with two characters that initially don’t expect a connection. The inclusion of a romantic lead with a disability is also really important in terms of representation, offering a fresh perspective beyond typical tropes, while still being effectively cute and making us root for them.
Written by Aminder Virdee, who also served as the Intersectional Disability Inclusion & Accessibility Consultant and Director’s Attachment, and Arthur Meek, the screenplay of My Eyes Are Up Here draws inspiration from Virdee’s own life experience. With Morris explaining that her goal with the script was to “visually represent a beautiful and multidimensional disabled woman of colour on screen”. Once Jillian Mercado was cast as lead Sonya, Virdee and Morris made adjustments to the screenplay to “reflect her lifestyle, as a model and wheelchair user”, adding another layer of authenticity to their narrative.
After Morris convinced the co-writers to let him direct the short, they all set out to “make a fun and entertaining film that also made people discover something deeper”. With the aim to increase representation of “black and brown visibly disabled talent” also a key motivator, the director and his team also recognized that accessibility would be a “key part of the filmmaking process”. Speaking to S/W, Morris candidly admitted that he was “really nervous about getting the tone wrong . . . by being ignorant to a situation”, which is why Virdee’s insight was paramount in the production process.
My Eyes Are Up Here stars Ben Cura (L) & Jillian Mercado.
While the fact that the main character of the film is disabled is in itself important and part of the story, making her journey more challenging than it should be, her disability is not her defining trait. Sonya is a strong, independent and successful woman and the film has a lot of humor, with that relatable awkwardness of waking up next to a one-night stand perfectly written through her prism. Like any good romcom, My Eyes Are Up Here does get cute, but what makes the film so effective is its perfect balance between reality and humor.
With Mercado better known for modelling work – her body of work as an actor is not as extensive (although some will most likely remember her from The L Word: Generation Q) – her performance is nonetheless truly impressive, as her character navigates a plethora of emotions over the runtime of the film. From waking up next to a guy, to going on a quest from Plan B, while dealing with all sorts of (not so) microaggressions, it’s chaos! And Mercado nails every single moment, her nuanced delivery of the dialogue and the quiet shots, where her facial reactions say much more than words, combine to ensure we really experience this common situation from her perspective. While her chemistry with Ben Cura, who portrays Tom, is undeniably captivating.
Ahead of its online premiere, My Eyes Are Up Here made its way around the festival circuit with notable stops at BFI London Film Festival, Sundance London and Slamdance, where it earned an Honorable Mention. On the back of the short’s success, Morris is currently developing two features. The first one, based on his childhood and set in ’80s New Zealand, he describes as “a coming-of-age story about an adopted kid who runs away from home to meet his birth mother”. He is currently planning trying to find a producing team and starting to look for financing for this feature, while also developing his second, set in midwest America in the mining world.