Anna Baumgarten's Disfluency is an award-winning short film that follows a young woman through her daily life, from her passive usage of the phrase "I'm sorry," to her being raped and the emotional aftermath. All the while, this habit of apologizing eerily stays with her throughout, begging the question: have we let rape become a cultural disfluency—an expected, almost unnoticeable interruption—in our culture?

Baumgarten, one of ten fellows at the Jim Cummings' Inaugural Short to Feature Film Lab, is currently working alongside industry professionals and peers to transform her short film Disfluency into a feature concept.

Other FTVM alumni involved in the project are as follows: Danny Mooney (FTVM '08), Producer; Anthony Kalil (FTVM '15), Co-producer; Layne Simescu (FTVM '15), Art Director; Monica Geraffo (FTVM '15), Costume Designer; and Laura Caruso (FTVM '16), Camera Department.

(Pictured at left) Anna  Baumgarten (FTVM '15) talks with DP John Fisher (FTVM '14) and Gaffer Walter Lin (FTVM '12). during her Disfluency shoot on Sunday, September 8, 2019, at the MLB. 

Photo credit, Veerendra Prasad