Play Date

a short film directed by
amberlee colson & laura campbell

Screenings

World Premiere: Dallas International Film Festival
April 27th, 8:00pm
April 28th, 1:15pm
🏆 Grandy Jury Prize: Best Short
🏆 Audience Award: Best Short
TICKETS

Best of DIFF
July 13th, 4:30pm
Look Cinema 7 Dallas, TX
TICKETS

LAShorts Intl. Film Festival
Friday, July 19th at 5:30pm
Regal LA Live
TICKETS

HollyShorts Film Festival
TCL Chinese 6 Theater
🏆 Honorable Mention
TICKETS

Hawai’i International Film Festival
Honolulu, Hawai’i
TICKETS

Anchorage International Film Festival
Dec 2025 Dates TBD!
🏆 Jury Award: Outstanding Directors
TICKETS

Cascadia International Women’s Film Festival
Bellingham, Washington
TICKETS

CREDITS

Co-directors & co-stars: Amberlee Colson & Laura Campbell

Executive Producers - Academy Award® Winner Kenneth Lonergan (“Manchester by the Sea”), Emmy and Film Independent Spirit Awards Nominee J. Smith-Cameron (“Succession”), Tony, Obie, and Drama Desk Award Winner Reed Birney (“The Menu”, “MASS”), and 2024 SXSW Narrative Feature and Jury Award-winning Director Tracie Laymon (“Bob Trevino Likes It”).

Producers - Tracie Laymon, Brad Barnes, Donna Morong, Leah Meyerhoff, Melissa Johnson, Christopher Saint-Hilaire, Ian Manheimer, Undine Buka

Writer - Gavin Broady

Cinematographer - Audrey Biche

Editor - Kelly Soll

SOCIAL MEDIA TAGS (Instagram):

@playdatefilm @lauraeacampbell @amberlee_colson @tracielaymonfilms @jsmithcameron @highhip @donnamorongcasting @mrgavinbroady @audrey_biche @kellysoll1 @donnamorongcasting @chrissainth #playdatefilm

LOGLINE
Two estranged mothers reunite to make sense of their daughter's last play date.

SYNOPSIS

Two mothers forge an unexpected connection on the one-year anniversary of a school shooting. Through a series of painfully awkward exchanges the women are led to an unexpected moment of joy and connection over a grilled cheese sandwich.

DIRECTORS’ STATEMENT

There aren't a lot of words we could use to describe why we need to tell this story. We all know. We hear the numbers everyday. 505 - that was the number of mass shootings in the United States in 2024. 250 - the number of children aged 0-11 killed by guns in 2024. 550 - the number of them injured.

So far in 2025 there have been 33 children killed in 33 mass shootings. Over a period of 44 days.**

It's overwhelming. Numbing.

With this film we want to give a face to the people left behind. specifically, the mothers. We want to explore what it is to hold space for their grief. to be present with it, to be affected by it.

Because maybe, if we do, it won't be so easy to go numb.

-Amberlee Colson & Laura Campbell (directors, Play Date)

**https://www.gunviolencearchive.org

WRITER’S STATEMENT

Play Date is an attempt to comprehend not only the depth of loss incurred by the parents of school shooting victims, but also the mental contortions the rest of us have to perform in order to keep living in a world where a day at school or a night at the movies can mean the end of the world as we know it.

- Gavin Broady (writer, Play Date)

DOWNLOADABLE GRAPHICS
(posters and select stills)
Cinematography Credit: Audrey Biche
Tag: @audrey_biche