At loggerheads again, this time over a mistakenly glimpsed laptop screen, a codependent mother and son strike a tenuous truce in order to rid their home of a maddening interloper.

In ‘The Chirping’ we study the complex relationship between mother and son while madly searching for a chirping cricket in an overly cluttered home. OK the relationship is not that complex, in fact, almost anyone can relate to it. That’s the raw beauty in Matt McKinney’s little short, where the constructive bickering between the two becomes the story.

I was thinking about how an argument can get stuck in your head. It reminded me of when there’s a sound coming from somewhere and yet you can’t find it anywhere. It starts to drive you nuts. And that’s where this story came from.

Gregg Brown and Simone Gad are able to create a fabulous natural bond between the two characters. Genuine and hilarious in its very own and bizarre way, which ends up giving the film its unique charm.