Jess X. Snow, Writer/Director 

Sloan Grant(s) Received: 2021, Production Award, NYU 

Project Type: Short Film 

Genre: Drama 

Length: 17 minutes 

Field of Science: Biology, Botany 

Stage: Pre-Production 

Synopsis 

After her immigrant mother’s herbal medicine store in Chinatown gets vandalized, Kai, a queer young botanist and heir to her mother’s ancestral practice, has a nervous breakdown and decides to close up shop for good. Following the incident, Kai’s relationship with her grieving mother is thrown into disarray, while Kai’s partner, Liz, helps organize a mural to help the neighborhood recover from the attacks. Torn between these two worlds in a precarious time, Kai is forced to decide what is most important to her; her mental health or her family. A matriarchal community-driven drama about inter-generational care, plants, bird migration and how the diasporic plants that are considered “invasive species” can actually bring us profound healing.