JUST LIE TO ME

Brooke gets mistaken as a sex worker and decides to go along with it. 

Written by Kylie Alesso

Directed by Kelly Walker

Just Lie to Me is a dark comedy centered around two people navigating their identities: Noah, a well-off intellectual who gets pressured by his coworker into soliciting a girl for the night and Brooke, who gets mistaken as a sex worker and decides to go along with it. The situation unfolds in a clunky interaction where both characters’ facades slowly wear away as they're forced to examine themselves.

This film is very personal for me, based on a time I was working in New York as a bartender and musician, struggling to outgrow a very jaded identity I felt trapped in. I allowed myself to be defined by the labels placed on me, and I built walls so strong I couldn’t see past them.

Brooke’s story explores the masks we wear and the struggle to be vulnerable though our learned and often addictive defense mechanisms. It exposes the truth of what's really going on with people in contrast to how they appear to be to be in their environment, and the struggle we all have in reconciling who we are with how the world wants to perceive us.

Right now people in all walks of life- not just women- are searching to change their narrative and transcend the stereotypes and categories that confine them. We want a safe place to feel strong and vulnerable at the same time, and to take control of our own narrative. 

As I continue to draw from the dark yet often comical truths of my personal experience, it’s on the path of creation that I find catharsis and healing, and can only hope to provide a space for others to find the same.

Kylie Alesso