A date becomes complicated when a controversial subject forces the couple to examine their desires and limitations.

Director’s Vision for ‘Mea Culpa’

Primarily interested in the nuances of human relationships, my work investigates toxic masculinity, male-male abuse, friendships and intimacy. I create stories about the integral relationships young adolescents experience which often shape the rest of their lives; those that nurture, inspire and challenge them. In my films, the young male protagonists I’m writing about are often confronting their own masculinity, and investigating their place in the world. The characters I explore have a habit of pursuing things they don’t have, and ultimately, they can’t have them. I juxtapose visually between dreams and reality, as the protagonists in my work are often fantasizing and living in their own heads. 

Mea Culpa is the culmination of years of work, influenced by my background in narrative work, and my desire to use film to explore themes of toxic masculinity, while discovering nuanced and grounded human relationships. In this film, a young man confronts his idealistic fantasies of a relationship by meeting with someone focusing on a controversial career path. While in the restaurant, and through their conversation, the two learn more about each other, including their careers, aspirations, desires and limitations. Over the course of the conversation, “HIM” begins to fantasize about the life he wishes to live, including the romantic relationship he has already built for the woman in front of him. “HER” learns more about the man in front of her, including how to re-assess her own boundaries and what she wishes to find in a partner. By the end of the film, the two have arrived at opposite sides of a conversation they didn’t expect to have. “HIM” confronts his own masculinity, while “HER” understands the people she will never indulge in again.