Year: 2021

Runtime: 9 minutes

Writer/Director: Cyrina Fiallo

Stars: Cyrina Fiallo, Renée Felice Smith, Chris Mollica, Emma Weisbach, Ava Lambrakis, Nora Harriet, Louise Morgan Weir, Dylan Beam

By Morgan Roberts

Short films are some of the most incredible feats of filmmaking. In the tightest of time constraints, the filmmaker must sell you on their vision and send you on a journey before parting ways with their audience. Writer/director Cyrina Fiallo accomplishes all of that and more in her short film “Someone to Carry You” (2021). The film follows Serena (Fiallo) who, after receiving an unexpected text from her best friend Laura (Renée Felice Smith), recounts the story of her life-long friendship with her soulmate. 

Readers, I love a good story about friendship. Friendship is the most powerful relationship we have. It is through our authentic selves that we create a potentially life-long relationship. As a human person, my most fulfilling and long-lasting relationships have been with my friends. The people who bought into my weird ideas and the fantastical hopes and dreams I held. So, with this short film, all of those culminate into a nine-minute-ode to friendship. 

“Someone to Carry You” is tender and sweet. But it doesn’t gloss over the ebbs and flows we have in relationships. The highs and lows we encounter with our people. The weathering through the storm over years can sometimes be the best picture of friendship. It is also just great to see a short film that highlights female friendship – and as a woman, my most successful relationships have always been the ones with my female friends. In a world that tries to divide us, it is those friendships that form a pillar in our foundation. 

It is heartwarming to see a film that follows a friendship which has grown from childhood, into adolescence, and now exists in adulthood. And it is a friendship that is personal to the filmmaker who included archival footage along with the acted material to showcase her real-life friendship. 

In a time when connection feels so much harder, it is nice to remember the people who have been there throughout our lives. The ones who have carried us in times of turmoil, who have joined in our wild ideas, and who have been constant threads in the fabric of our being. With its premiere last weekend, here’s to hoping more people get to share in this love letter to friendship.