Andy Reid on Brief Somebodies: making a meta short about assault

Who he is

Andy Reid is a writer, director and casting professional whose short film Brief Somebodies revisits his own experience of sexual assault through the fictionalised frame of a film production. Directors Notes spoke with Reid following the short’s online premiere as a Vimeo Staff Pick and after the site had previously included it in its SXSW 2025 Best of Fest coverage (Directors Notes).

What the film is

Brief Somebodies follows two actors rehearsing a complicated scene that depicts sexual violence. Reid places the action on a set to create distance and test the ethics and emotional cost of dramatising lived trauma. As he told Directors Notes, “I made the short to see if the work itself offered any answers.”

How it was made

The film was process‑driven. Reid cast Aldrin Bundoc as Joel and Matt O’Connor as Calvin, worked with intimacy coordinator Krystle Ferdinand, and shot the story chronologically so the actors’ relationship developed on screen as it did in production. Cinematographer Colin Cameron — a collaborator since film school — helped build a visual language that shifts between locked‑off distance and close handheld intimacy, with deliberate choices like shooting on sticks but leaving the head unlocked and introducing a subtle, constant zoom (Directors Notes).

Reid spoke about the casting decisions candidly: he considered playing Joel himself but chose to direct instead so he could “show up and be as present as the filmmaker must be.” He also reflected on the unexpected effect of sharing the film: it’s “a little less ‘mine’ now. It’s become its own thing” (Directors Notes).

Directors Notes describes Brief Somebodies as an exercise in calibrating honesty, performance and care — a film that refuses tidy resolution and trusts its audience to participate.

Where to see more: Reid told Directors Notes you can follow his work on Instagram: @ndyreid (Andy Reid, quoted in Directors Notes).