Indie sci-fi film from multiracial filmmaker to be featured at Boston Film Festival
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OAKLAND, Calif. - Californer -- Rising African American and Chinese American filmmaker Gina Rose was working as a mental health professional when she decided to create her first feature film "I Can't Sleep" on a shoestring budget of just $10,000.

Now, the microbudget film will be featured in the 46th Annual Boston Sci Fi Film Festival scheduled for February 10-15, to be held virtually this year due to the COVID-19 pandemic. In addition to screening her film, Rose will sit on one of the festival's pre-recorded directors' panels.

I Can't Sleep is a feature-length film written, directed, and produced by Rose. The movie's plot centers on a young writer who struggles to complete a science fiction story while battling supernatural forces in real life.

Rose began making films as a teenager. After learning about the art of microfilmmaking, she decided to save everything she could from her day jobs in mental health to make her first film. She wrote the script with her budget constraints in mind and collaborated with a friend, indie musician Kyle Lim of The Holographic Children, to compose the soundtrack.

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As a filmmaker of color and a woman breaking into the world of science fiction film, Rose said she is proud to bring her work to a space noted for lacking minority and female voices.

"Representation matters," she said. "Although their race is not explicitly discussed in the movie, it is of course an integral part of who the characters are. My goal as a filmmaker is to tell stories about multifaceted characters who defy expectations and assumptions."

I Can't Sleep is ultimately a film about trauma, one of Rose's professional specialties as a mental health provider.

"I'm so grateful for my background in mental health because it's given me a different perspective on people and behavior," she said. " I absolutely think that my professional work with trauma – trying to be a safe person who bears witness to another person's pain – along with the healing that comes from finding safe, kind and trustworthy people in my personal life is what this story is about."

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The film has attracted the attention of several festivals this year. In the meantime, Rose is working on new scripts that she will pursue filming in the near future.

View the trailer for I Can't Sleep at https://youtu.be/I2NEkPwVPx8.



Learn more on the film's official website at https://icantsleepmovie.com. Follow I Can't Sleep on Facebook and Instagram at @icantsleepmovie.

For tickets and information about the virtual Boston Sci-Fi Film Festival, go to https://www.bostonscifi.com.