Hex the Patriarchy

Director   Anne Brashier
Writer   Heather Muriel Nguyễn
Country   USA
Year   2022
Languages   English
Genre   Coming-of-Age, Fantasy, Comedy
Running Time   6 min

Fed up with being bullied in high school, demisexual and asexual best friends Bex and Wren strike back with a bit of magic that has unintended consequences.

This film is part of Shorts: The Bright Sides program.

Director and Writer's Statement

Hex the Patriarchy is a heartfelt celebration of loving who you are and inviting everyone around you to embrace themselves. We wanted to explore what it'd be like to have magic in high school, often the most confusing place and time, especially as a young queer and trans child trying to make friends and not understanding why they're not liked.

Our writer Heather survived childhood with her own best friend, respectively queer and trans before they knew those terms existed. They wished for magic to counter bullies' hurtful words but also unleash vibrantly queer joy and self-love as the ultimate revenge, because what's more terrifying to a bully than to see themselves in the ones they try to ostracize? Hex the Patriarchy is a love letter to their younger selves, who didn't know such an affirming story and world could be theirs.

And, how can you not fall in love with a story about two queer witchy teenagers who try so hard to make friends and care for each other? I adored these characters so much that I could not wait to get them on screen. As someone who came to be brave about my queerness later in life, I wish my teenage self had friends like Bex and Wren. I was honored to work with Heather on their hilarious and loving script, and it was a joy to bring it to life with a talented cast and crew. Here's to shouting it from the rooftops and chanting it on repeat: being queer is beautiful.

Director’s Bio

Anne Brashier (she/they​)

Anne Brashier makes emotionally gripping, physically dynamic, boldly engaging film and theater. She holds an MFA in film production at USC, where she directed Us vs Us, a documentary about political polarization during the 2020 Fall General Election (Global Shorts Festival, Catalina International Film Festival).

Her film The Dermatologist, about a spy who discovers that her target is her mom, premiered at the 2019 Broad Humor Festival. She co-produced The Cypher, a short that is an official selection at 2020 Tribeca.

She was recently accepted into the Stowe Story Lab to develop Dugout, an adaptation of MacBeth set at a Little League game. She was a 2019 NBCUniversal Writers On The Verge finalist, and her scripts have won several competitions.

She is also a former sailing instructor who performed for years as a singing & dancing microwave oven.