Taking the Leap
Runtime: 8:31When a friend invites a young Appalachian boy to swim at the river, the boy must wrestle with the legacy of his father’s death. He’s forced to choose between his mother’s fear and his own awakening.
Director - Emerson Minor
Emerson Minor is a filmmaker based out of NYC. He earned his bachelor's in theater at West Virginia University and has studied acting at institutes in Italy, Washington, DC, and New York City. For the past five years he has learned the craft of filmmaking through working on film sets and collaborating with his peers in self-funded projects. Through an unusual upbringing of being homeschooled in the mountains of Appalachia, Emerson has learned to explore new ways of telling personal and universal stories. He believes nature as a filmic device offers the possibility to change stagnant narratives about underrepresented communities. Taking the Leap is his second short film.
Directors Statement
This short film is about hope for the future.
A few years ago, I heard the story of a man who drowned in a lake near where I grew up. He went into the water still wearing his steel-toed boots, which filled with water and weighed him down. This tragic story made me reflect on the broader history of West Virginia, a region that has been stripped by coal mining. Thousands of families trusted the companies that came with promises of jobs and prosperity, only to be left with dangerous working conditions and abandoned when the coal dried up.
Like the man trying to refresh after a long day's work, unaware of the consequences of entering the lake wearing his boots, many families did not realize the long-term damage that accepting these imposed conditions would cause. The poverty that followed was only deepened when pharmaceutical companies flooded these communities with opioid painkillers.
For good reason, there is a sense of fatalism throughout Appalachia. My dad always says, "No matter what, we just get f*cked." I understand where that feeling comes from, but I believe these events are part of a cycle that we must take control of and break.
Taking the Leap is a folktale for the younger generation—a story that encourages them to understand that the past does not define them, and to find the courage and trust in themselves to imagine new futures.
