About the Film

High school was a battle for me; I was highly proficient in the arts, having made several award-winning short films by age 17, but I was constantly struggling to keep up with subject matter that I didn’t care for at all. As someone on the autistic spectrum, I could never deeply connect with my peers, afraid of being seen as awkward. I was seeing friends starting romantic relationships and hosting parties, while I was stuck in my bedroom making videos.

 

One morning, during my junior year of high school in Florida, I was riding to school in a depressive haze, earphones plugged, when I suddenly pictured a scene from a film with this exact concept. I instantly thought to myself: “I could make something really special out of this!”. I was tired of seeing modern-day coming-of-age films made by much older directors with no knowledge of my current generation. I also knew it was possible to make a heartfelt coming-of-age drama with a low budget, which further compelled me in wanting to make the film as soon as possible.

 

I spent the first three months of the COVID-19 pandemic writing the script, loosely based on experiences I’d had in high school. I then spent another year pitching it to everyone and anyone I could find with even the slightest connection to the film industry, with little to no success. Then, through complete coincidence, I bumped into a series of producers through mutual connections. Those connections eventually snowballed, and I suddenly found myself in the director’s chair within less than a year.  

 

In writing The Midway Point, I explored themes of loneliness and alienation, both being important themes within the digital age, and something which I felt was underrepresented in stories featuring Generation Z. I was heavily inspired by films with similar subject matter, such as Lost in Translation and The Perks of Being a Wallflower. 

 

In filming the project, I was also inspired by the handheld, naturalistic cinematography of films like Y Tu Mamá También, Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, and the works of Krzysztof Kieślowski.

 

So much of our generation is surrounded by a constant sea of noise, disruption, and mistrust of the world, that I felt compelled to make a story featuring characters who, despite all the odds, find a way out into a better world.

 

- Lucca Vieira, writer and director