ABOUT
Flowers Die First is a senior capstone by CARALIS Productions that highlights a stellar cast and award-winning crew. Browse our site for trailers, exclusive videos, and information about where and when Flowers Die First will be playing and how to support this project.
Logline: Flowers Die First follows a romance that ensues after an orange packing girl, in 1940’s California, receives a response to a provocative hidden letter she wrote to deployed soldiers. Now she must choose between duty to family or to herself.
DIRECTORS STATEMENT
My name is Gwyn Newcomb, and if I had to describe my experience preparing to tell the story that is Flowers Die First into one word, it would be liberating. After reading the script, I quickly realized how rare it is to walk away from a story feeling truly seen. Our characters have rich character flaws and strengths that make them irresistible to love and to relate to. There is such an innate feeling of womanhood that hangs in the balance of duty and fate- and that is the story we are telling. The more time I spend speaking to other young women of various ethnic backgrounds, the deeper the need is to tell a story like Flowers Die First. Having a story that cultivates all women's experiences in one way or another is not a role I take lightly, or one that I take on by myself. It is an honor to lead an incredible crew with such remarkable talent to capture a story that will move any audience.
STORY & SYNOPSIS
ACT 1
The story follows Anita, an orange packing girl, who is engaged to the factory manager of “Citrus Heights” - Felipe- to help her father out of debt. Anita, resigned to her fate, tries to keep her head down and please Felipe at work by reporting to him when the factory girls get too rowdy. When Anita is prompted to check out what her co-workers Dotty and Rosa are making a fuss about, she is shocked to see they have been packing racy photos and cheeky notes in their orange crates in hopes of getting a response from deployed soldiers. Spurred into defying the life the girls have painted for Anita’s future, should she marry Felipe, Anita rebels against their expectations and writes an impulsive and provocative note that ships with the oranges. Paid by the crate, Anita begins planning to pack her boxes fast enough to escape marrying Felipe.
ACT 2
After avoiding Felipe around the factory, and packing faster to provide for her father, Anita gets called to the office phone and discovers that the letter she had spontaneously sent got a response. Anita, taken aback by the humor and kindness this soldier who has responded displays, agrees to continue correspondence and they begin a secret affair with long letters exchanged between the two. Distracted by this new facet of her life Anita’s focus gets pulled from packing her boxes, to ease her fathers debt, to maintaining this secret romance. Anita soon receives a letter to meet the soldier at a diner and begin their life together when he gets discharged. Felipe, growing ever frustrated with Anitas disinterest, begins poking around and intercepts a telegram that was addressed to Anita on his way out of leaving a dinner at her house. Simultaneously Anita’s Father is shocked to learn that she is throwing away a life that could provide for them both, but he comes to understand that she would never be happy with Felipe and what he would provide. Anita goes to meet her soldier at the diner, but runs into Felipe waiting for her outside her fathers home. Felipe threatens Anita with an ultimatum and Anita breaks her engagement to Felipe off.
ACT 3
Anita goes to the diner to meet the soldier, but after hours of waiting she is stood up. Embarrassed, Anita refocuses herself at the factory and keeps her head down. Anita is called to the office by Felipe where she is let go from the company and delivered the news that he has found out about her affair. As a final blow, Felipe hands her the opened telegram and Anita discovers then that her lover was killed in action and she had lost everything.
FILM SPECS
Genre: Dramatic Romance, Period Piece
Running Time: 16 Minutes 35 Seconds
Aspect Ratio: 2:35:1
Screening Formats: 4K
Sound: Stereo
Shot on RED Gemini, 24p
Language: English/Spanish
Subtitles: English, Spanish
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