Short Film · 2025 · Released
ledges
Written & Directed by
Giovanni Doray
Starring
Justin Tyler Kem as Conner, Jennifer Michele De Winters as Riley
2025
Released
Short Film · 2025 · Released
The Film
Ledges follows Conner, a young man adrift in early grief after losing his mother to suicide. As a way of reaching out — or perhaps reaching back — he contacts Riley, his high school friend who has since left Seattle for USC. Conner feels like he's falling behind; Riley has moved forward. What passes between them is unspoken but unmistakable: Conner has carried something for Riley for a long time, and in the depths of loss, the heart returns to what it knows is still there.
But real growth rarely happens in the presence of someone else. It happens alone, in the quiet after. And if it hurts, it means it's working.
The title came from the shoot itself. Mid-week, Justin turned to Giovanni and said, "It seems we've filmed on ledges for most of this film." That was it. The working title — The Silence After You — was retired on the spot.
"Real growth never happens shared. It often happens alone — and if it hurts, it means it's happening."
Stills
Director's Note
I had just started working for an airline. Ledges was one of the first trips I made to Los Angeles on a $70 roundtrip ticket. That's the whole budget story.
The first day of the shoot, I forgot the cable that connected my hard drive to my camera. An entire scene couldn't be filmed. We rewrote on the spot, came back for it on a later day — and that scene was ultimately cut from the final release anyway due to technical issues. The film survived all of that.
We spent a week filming. The working title was The Silence After You. Partway through the shoot, Justin looked around at where we'd been filming and said, "It seems we've filmed on ledges for most of this film." I said, that's the title, and it was.
The film was submitted and completed. That's the part people forget to say — that despite everything going sideways, you finish it. You submit it. And it exists now, which is more than it did before.
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