Sleepover LA

A Trip into a Downtown Dreamscape from Indie Filmmaker Lily Baldwin

“Transitioning from performance into film has made so much sense, as all film is choreography,” says Lily Baldwin, the writer, director and star of the darkly comic short film Sleepover LA. “Articulate bodies reveal what words can’t.” The Los Angeles filmmaker draws on her background as a professional dancer—with choreography credits that include Blood Orange, David Byrne and Brian Eno—for the surreal tale, and wanted to experiment with the power of minimal dialogue. “The camera can create an intimacy that's not possible from the stage,” says Baldwin, whose co-star is Nicole Disson, another West Coast multi-hyphenated creative and the film’s producer. Disson is currently performing in The Least Important Things at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art and her series of 13 immersive art performances at The Standard, Downtown LA, helped secure the hotel’s location for the project. “In this instance my character has a real stoic quality to her that the role of producing lent itself to,” says Disson, revelling in the duo’s creative multitasking. “Calling action and cut for myself was a hoot,” adds Baldwin. “I tried to transfer this split personality tension into my character Taylor’s shy nervousness.”