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Based on a true story set in 1933, 13-year-old Betty discovers a mysterious secret in her decrepit home. She soon realizes it's tied to a painful history, and it's up to her to create the healing the women in her family so desperately need.

Written, Directed, and Produced by: Michelle West

Starring: Cailin Peluso, Christopher Callen, Michelle West

Official Selection - HollyShorts Film Festival

Official Selection - The Women's Film Festival

Official Selection - Borrego Springs Film Festival

Official Selection - Poppy Jasper Int'l Film Festival

DIRECTOR STATEMENT

Lineage, based on true events within my family, evolved from the kind of generational storytelling where only memories carry the remaining traces of the values, victories, and vices of those in my ancestry.

A few years ago, I learned how my Nana met my Pop, what they did for a living, and about the challenges that plagued Nana’s mother, my great-grandmother, who had several life-risking abortions during the Great Depression. Plot twist - Nana also found a fetus in a jar when she was a young girl. Not a lot of information about that, and it must have been 50+ years before she told anyone.

The secretive nature of this story made me wonder -–

What happens when these traumatic experiences are left unresolved? How do secrets affect generations?

What if women weren’t shamed into silence?

By sharing this story of Betty (my Nana), her mother, and her grandmother, I hope to break a cycle of secrecy.

I hope this film can be a reminder of what women have gone through, and continue to endure, resulting in the fight for fundamental rights today.

Most importantly, I hope we can see Betty’s courage and compassion in ourselves.

By honoring the stories of the women in our families, and acknowledging their choices with empathy, we gain the power to expose secrets, heal epigenetic trauma, and create new opportunities for future generations.

Lineage, then, is not what we are destined to behold, but what we choose to create.