This Dark and Intimate Short Film ALL US ANIMALS Turns New Year’s Eve 1959 Into a Pressure Cooker

I’ve got a great short film for you to watch today titld all Us Animals. The story takes place in the dawn of a new decade, New Year’s Eve 1959, when the unexpected arrival of a childhood friend brings simmering marital tension to a boiling point.  

While the film is a self-contained story about repression, sexuality, and control, it also serves as a proof of concept for the feature, which expands the world across three New Year’s Eves, tracing the characters’ unraveling through the ‘50s, ‘60s, and ‘70s.

The movie was written and directed by David Hartstone. It is shared in collaboration with the FilmQuest Film Festival, where we are looking to expose some of the great indie genre films and shorts that filmmakers are creating.

I’ve included an interview with the filmmaker below along with the short!

What was the inspiration for your film? How did you come up with the idea?

“The seed came from our lead actress and producer, Lexa Gluck. She had a vision of two women in the 1950s plotting to run away together. From there, we asked why? What would drive them to risk everything?

“Would they succeed? Those questions became the heart of the film - for which I drew inspiration from the kind of stories and performances that shaped me during my time studying acting at the Stella Adler Studio. I wanted to write scenes actors would ache to play.”

Tell us about yourself. What is your background? How long have you been a filmmaker?

“My background is in acting, but storytelling has always been the constant. Right before the pandemic, I decided to stop waiting for permission and start creating. I learned filmmaking the hard way, one short film at a time. Each project became its own crash course, pushing me closer to the goal of directing features.”

What inspires you to work within genre cinema and tell these kind of stories?

“Genre cinema is everything I love about movies. It uses every tool of the medium to grab you by the throat and make you feel something. Sound, color, movement, and performance all working together to reach through the screen and hit you on a gut level. That’s what I look for as a viewer, and it’s what I chase as a filmmaker.”

What was your favorite part of the filmmaking process for this project?

“Getting to do real camera and lens tests for the first time was thrilling. Working with my DP, Stephen Vanderpool, to discover the film’s look before we ever rolled made all the difference, giving me the freedom on set to focus entirely on performance and story.”

What are you most proud of with this film?

“I’m most proud of the team that brought this film to life. From pre to post, everyone showed up with total commitment and faith in the vision. It’s rare to feel that level of trust and creative unity on a set and honestly, it was the greatest honor of my career thus far.”

What is a favorite story or moment from the making of the film you'd like to share? 

“From the very first draft, I’d imagined this ambitious slow-motion oner during the New Year’s Eve countdown. The kind of sequence you usually have to abandon once the reality of time and budget hits. But somehow, the film gods were on our side.

“There was this perfect synchronicity between the DP, the camera, and the actors and we nailed it exactly as planned. Watching playback on set and seeing it actually work, was electric. That was the moment we all knew we had something special.”

What was your most challenging moment or experience you had while making your film?

“Unfortunately, this is an easy one to answer. On our second-to-last night of filming, we had to evacuate the set at midnight after our producer was threatened by the property manager. By every measure, that should’ve been the end of the movie.

“But somehow, the team refused to give up. Friends showed up in the middle of the night to help, and our A.C., Madison Stonefield, miraculously found us a new location that same night. We were back filming the next day and that kind of resilience is exactly what independent filmmaking is all about.

If it did, how did your film change or differ from its original concept during pre-production, production, and/or post-production? How has this changed how you'll approach future projects as a result?

“We broke rule number one of making a short film…We made it too long! We wanted to see if we could pull off a full act of a feature for the price of a short film and we DID. But the length was a tough sell for festivals. In the end, we shot an arrow through the heart of the story and it made the film sharper, leaner, and more powerful. But we made a promise; if we’re making a short film, it’s going to be short.”

Who were some of your collaborators and actors on the film? How did you start working with each other?

“First and foremost, there’s Lexa Gluck, my producer, star, and partner in life for the past ten years. I’m the luckiest guy in the world to make movies with her. Stephen Vanderpool and Danielle Spisso at Picture 304 are our creative soulmates and true power-couple collaborators. Our cast, Celia Massingham, Nick Puya, and Julian Vlcan, was a dream mix of close friends and new discoveries through Actor’s Access, and I can’t wait to work with them again!”

What is the best advice you've ever received as a filmmaker and what would you like to say to new filmmakers?

“When I made my first short film, I was literally sick with anxiety. But my DP, Aric Coppola, came to my side and said something to effect of “Look man, you might have a few new grey hairs after this, but you’re also gonna have a finished film, and I think that’s a pretty sweet trade.” He snapped everything into perspective for me. Making movies is hard work! But in the end, it’s all worth it. So DO IT!”

What are your plans for your career and what do you hope this film does for it? What kind of stories would you like to tell moving forward?

“The film has already been a massive success in terms of the confidence it’s given us moving forward. We’re continuing the festival run and using that momentum to connect with more fearless, inspiring artists. Looking ahead, I want to keep telling deeply human stories set in larger-than-life worlds. Whether that’s an intimate drama, a raunchy comedy, or a blood-soaked horror. The genre changes, but the heartbeat stays the same.”

What is your next project and when can we expect to see it? 

“We’re in pre-production on a sexy, surreal vampire short that we plan to release by next Halloween; something bold, bloody, and beautiful. We’re fortunate enough to have several features making the rounds in Hollywood, but beyond that, we’re staying open and trusting the Universe to surprise us, as it always does.”

Where can we find more of your work and where can interested parties contact you? Do you have a website or YouTube/Vimeo channel? Social media handles?

www.seventhhousepro.com, @davehartstone, @lexagluck, @seventhhousepro

Bonus Question #1: What is your all-time favorite film?

Hook (1991) or Enter the Void (2009) I think that sums up the duality inside me.

Bonus Question #2: What is the film that most inspired you to become a filmmaker and/or had the most influence on your work?

Seeing Requiem for a Dream as a kid woke me up to what cinema could be. And now, I continue to be inspired by indie auteurs and blockbuster directors alike.