WANING is a narrative short film written and directed by JERUMAI, a New York-based filmmaker and visual artist. The film follows SILAS, a young queer man navigating a single summer night in New York City — a chance encounter with a stranger, a night that almost cracks him open, and the moment he decides to close back up.
The film is built around a specific and intentional visual language: each character carries their own color palette woven through lighting, costume, and production design. The line between Silas's interior world and reality blurs through recurring dreamscape sequences that give form to desire he won't let himself name out loud. It is a film about limerence — the ache of wanting something you won't reach for — and about the particular kind of loneliness that comes from being your own obstacle.
WANING is designed as a proof of concept for a feature film, and will be submitted to Sundance, SXSW, Tribeca, Outfest, and NewFest following completion. It will be produced entirely in New York City with an emerging cast and crew.
Your support makes it possible to bring this film to life without compromising its vision — to hire skilled collaborators, shoot on proper equipment, and deliver the level of craft this story deserves. Every contribution goes directly toward production and post-production costs, including the color grading that is central to how this film communicates.
This is an independent project made outside of any studio system, by and for people who believe that queer interiority deserves to be rendered with the same visual ambition and artistic rigor as any other human experience.