A story to tell: Santa Fe native collaborates on short film 'Fender'

Jy Prishkulnik knows that connections can blossom into something great.

With the Writers Guild of America and SAG-AFTRA strike taking place during most of 2023, the Santa Fe native decided to create a project of her own.

Prishkulnik teamed up with Sophie Anne Miller to create the short film, “Fender.”

“Sophie and I met in acting class,” Prishkulnik says. “Her school has a program where they came up to Los Angeles from Texas. I was the stage manager during the program. Sophie told me this story that actually happened to her. That gave us the inspiration for the script.”

“Fender” tells the story of Annie, who is driving on the last night of summer with friends.

Annie is haunted by the immediate threat of a relentless stalker — a manifestation of her deepest fears rooted in childhood. She must first contend with the reality of being gaslit and mocked by her friends, before ultimately confronting the lifetime of fears and anxieties that have shaped her.

A story to tell: Santa Fe native collaborates on short film 'Fender'

Miller says societal caution often challenges the intuition of women, which ends up dismissed as paranoia.

“This story is based on something that happened to me,” Miller says. “As I reflect on what happened, I am baffled that my hesitation suppressed my gut instinct that was screaming danger!

Upon sharing this story with others over the years, I marvel at how many women share similar experiences — their hesitancy when placed in unsafe, uncomfortable and sometimes terrifying situations reflects my own.

Jy is one of these women. All of us ignored our survival instinct to speak up and act on that impulse. Because our experiences echo through the shared history of womankind. The ambiguous and dismissible nature of a woman’s intuition resonates too deeply with too many to mean nothing.”

Production on the film will begin in Los Angeles, though Prishkulnik says the project looked at New Mexico to film. Along with Miller and Prishkulnik, the cast includes Nya Garner, Katrina Gaedcke, Mahagany Adair, Kobe Williams, Ricky Rodriguez and Austin Vicente Barnes.

“There were too many actors to fly out to New Mexico to make it work,” Prishkulnik says. “We’re hoping that a future project will be able to film in my home state.”

Miller says writing began in March 2023.

“It seems like the further that we get into the process, there is more that we need to do,” Miller says. “We’re not only writing the script and directing, we’re also producing it. We’re going to have to also put our acting hats on.”

Prishkulnik says there’s a swirling excitement as production is set to begin in a few weeks.

“We were excited to write,” Prishkulnik says. “We wanted to write the roles for ourselves and we are creating our own opportunities. As soon as we started, we knew that the story was really important. The fact that the story belongs to so many people, it will resonate with an audience.”

The National Intimate Partner and Sexual Violence Survey (NISVS) reports that 1 in 3 women have been stalked and nearly 58% of women experience stalking before the age of 25.

Prishkulnik and Miller say for generations, girls have been taught to be cautious — highly aware of their surroundings, thoughtful about how they come off to others, careful of letting their guard down.

“Yet, when women voice their fears, the same society that forces them to be cautious, turns around and calls them paranoid,” the pair says. “By doing this now, we are providing context to situations that have been and will continue to be harmful. That is, until we can collectively become more aware of the impact our decisions might have on the people around us, as well as how to contend with our own inner voices.”

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