Opinion
Don’t Be Rude is a taut, unsettling short that explores how social conditioning to “be polite” can become a quiet but dangerous trap. Cassidy (Lola McLeod), a broke backpacker selling solar panels door-to-door, senses something is off when Brian (Spencer Schunk) invites her inside, but she stays out of politeness.
What follows is an unnerving game of psychological chess, heightened by unusual camera angles, distorted framing and an ominous score that keep the viewer off balance. Supposedly inspired by a true story, the film plays with ambiguity – is Brian a threat or merely lonely? Well executed on a minimal budget, it’s an atmospheric and suspenseful study of vulnerability, instinct and survival.
Director Statement
I believe hugely in the impact this film will have. Women are brought up in society being taught to be polite and never to make anyone uncomfortable, even if the person in question is making them uncomfortable themselves. Films about this topic are almost always loud, dramatic and violent. This real issue in real life is hardly ever that way – it’s quiet, insidious, and masked by the oft-male excuse of “I was just trying to be nice”.
Every woman who I’ve told this true story to, or who has watched the film, has found the man terrifying, and very much related to Cassidy throughout, and every man has been shocked that this is such a relatable, common experience (even the men on the crew). Cassidy is every girl – clever, wits about her, but still at risk. That’s why this film needs to be completed with as high a post-production value as possible – to raise awareness of the actual everyday issue of safety that women – not only the back-alley horror stories that happen once every now and then.
The film was shot in Toronto, in two days, funded by tips I made as a bartender on a working holiday visa. I lived out in Toronto for three months and pulled this film together in a month, with huge thanks owed to the talented cast and crew and the especially hard work of Enrique Miguel Baniqued, the Producer. Last year, Enrique was nominated for the Emerging Producer award at TIFF for his feature Village Keeper.