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LIONESS

By Nicole POUCHET

MORNING LARK PRODUCTIONS LLC - as PROD

Female director - Completed 2022

A prisoner learns the meaning of freedom when her health fails as she compares her life of forced labor with her dream of being a zookeeper.

Festivals
& Awards

Hollyshorts FF 2022

Official Selection

Seattle Black FF 2022

Official Selection

Tacoma FF 2022

Official Selection

- Year of production
- 2022
- Genres
- Female director, Animation, Social issues
- Countries
- USA
- Languages
- ENGLISH
- Budget
- 0 - 0.3 M$
- Duration
- 5 mn
- Director(s)
- Nicole POUCHET
- Writer(s)
- Nicole POUCHET
- Producer(s)
- Monica VALENZUELA (MORNING LARK PRODUCTIONS LLC)
- Synopsis
- In animated format, a lioness paces the edge of her enclosure in the zoo. The zookeeper, Amelika, comes to feed the lion. The lioness speaks, admonishing the zookeeper for a misdeed known between them. The zookeeper hugs the lioness and together they stare outside of the enclosure where the lioness is trapped.
  
  This daydream is interrupted by reality as Fran, Amelika’s work partner, urges Amelika to get back to work. Switching to live action format, Amelika and Fran are revealed to be incarcerated women, toiling to clear tall, thorny blackberry bushes from a Washington state park.
  
  As Amelika half-heartedly gathers the fallen blackberries from the ground around her, Fran picks berries from the bushes and rakes up the fallen ones from the ground. Fran jokes that she’s in prison for growing weed, and now they’ve got her gardening as a punishment. Hot, tired, and cranky, Amelika falls to the ground. Fran urges her to get up, afraid that the Guard will punish them both for not completing their work.
  
  It becomes clear that Amelika is ill when Fran risks leaving her work post to check on Amelika. Wary and impatient, the Guard approaches. Fran has screamed for help, but once he arrives she is scared that he may hurt Amelika. Fran begs him not to hurt Amelika when he reaches toward weapons on his toolbelt.
  
  The Guard uses a walkie-talkie to call for help. No one answers. Though saddened, he’s not surprised.
  
  Amelika’s mind slips away. The animated lioness paces into the scene. Amelika says she knows now that the lion shouldn’t be caged. She could never be a zookeeper. Real-world Amelika closes her eyes, giving in to heat stroke as Fran’s shouts fade away. Animated Amelika runs to the lioness and jumps on its back. They run away together, free.

LIONESS

Festivals& Awards

Festivals
& Awards