“We Were” by Jonah Haber
“We Were” follows David from childhood to adulthood, tracing relationships and moments across three stages of his life. In 2007, a young David forms a sweet summer camp bond with Janelle, saving mementos from their camp days together in his memory box. As the years pass, David experiences first love with his high school sweetheart, Amy, and eventually navigates heartbreak and the complexities of adult relationships with Mia. Throughout, David adds to his memory box, collecting tokens from his past — symbols of how love, although fickle, will always find a way back into his life again.
FROM THE DIRECTOR
“We Were” is about growing up. It’s about first loves and first heartbreaks, friendships you feel will last forever that eventually fizzle out and fade away, and going through the peaks and valleys of life where sometimes it feels like the pain can be too much to bear until you realize that this too shall pass. When writing this film with my co-writer Saro Acharya, we pulled from many of our own experiences growing up and based the character of David on ourselves and our friends in the late 2000s. The shoebox-turned-memory-box is an element pulled directly from my own life. At a young age I started collecting my camp penpal letters and to this day now have an overflowing Adidas box filled with letters, photos, and artifacts from pivotal moments in my life.
During the conceptualization phase of this project, I happened to see an Instagram story posted by one of my friends that had a picture of her “memory box”, and that got me thinking- the idea of collecting moments from your life in a box is probably not a very unique one. As I began asking around I was pretty surprised to hear that the majority of friends I spoke to had a memory box of some sort that they started when they were kids. At that point, I knew that there was something universally relatable here.
While the three time periods are all centred around three relationships David goes through during three very different periods in his life, I didn’t want to put this film in the box (pun intended) of just being about his past loves. Ultimately everyone will have a slightly different takeaway as the film ends. I wanted to leave things open to interpretation as there is no way to simplify the experience of growing up.”
-Jonah Haber
CREDITS
Director// Jonah Haber
Starring
Kevin Romano
Damian Shillis
Vivienne Cvetkovski
Amanda Thamage
Jessa Richer
Writers// Jonah Haber & Saro Acharya
Producer// Michael Ren
Cinematographer// Diego Guijarro, CSC, AEC
Production Designer// Dialla Kawar
Production Company// IBUKI Films Inc
Exec Producer// Renzo Sunga, Trust, Sarah Brannan
Editor// Michael Barker
Post House// Outsider Editorial
Editorial Producer// Kayan Choi and Kelsey Dale-McGrath
Colourist// Sam Gilling
Colour House// Baconx
Sound Designer// Alex Gluch
Music// Courtesy of Musicbed & Washed Out
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