Sitting down with Marchelle Bradanini and Emily Alpren, you are immediately swept up in the same delicious, chaotic wit and raw emotional honesty that make their short film ‘Floored‘ such a wild ride.
What starts as a cosy chat about motherhood and collaboration quickly blooms into something so much deeper a beautifully candid reflection on identity, female rage, postpartum isolation, sisterhood, and the bizarre absurdities of modern womanhood.
Born out of a real-life friendship forged in the sleep-deprived haze of a Hollywood baby class, Floored channels their deeply personal experiences into a darkly comedic satire that feels utterly outrageous yet painfully relatable.
Throughout our conversation, Marchelle and Emily speak with such beautiful, refreshing openness about the loneliness of the postpartum period, the crushing weight of societal expectations, the delicate pressures of ageing, and the healing magic of finding a creative community, all while keeping a playful humour that never loses sight of the soft humanity underneath the madness.
- Marchelle Bradanini and Emily Alpren, how did you both meet and come to collaborate on this project?
Emily: At Payless Shoes.
Marchelle: No. We met in the fever dream of early motherhood in a baby class held in a Hollywood strip mall. It was next to an establishment that now hosts axe-throwing parties.
Emily: I’ve forgotten everything except that I’m certain the class was next to a Payless Shoes.
Marchelle: We were so simpatico in our sense of humour and also just the absurdity of these newfound roles. We talked about collaborating, and one day Emily, while lying on the floor talking about Baseball, just came up with the idea.
Emily: Nothing like the electricity of Milwaukee Brewers sensation Jackson Churio that strikes themes of identity through a satirical, disturbing lens.
- Your latest project has a very interesting title. Can you share with us how you settled on the title ‘Floored’ for this short film?
Marchelle: The title has multiple meanings. First, it’s about the literal pelvic floor. Post pregnancy, one often works on getting it back to its former fighting form. Secondly, it’s about a woman hitting what feels like her literal and emotional rock bottom after discovering she’s been passed over for a role in a horror film called “The Floor.”
- Your director’s statement speaks about the “brutal isolation after childbirth.” How much of the film comes directly from your own lived experiences as mothers?
Marchelle: I spent a lot of my life playing music, which was mostly a nocturnal existence. The transition to early mornings and having a radically different day-to-day schedule took me a while to adjust.
Emily: It was exquisite. It was lonely. I had a sick baby, so, honestly, it was tough to relate to other moms; our experiences were just so different. My next child was born in February 2020, a super normal year for everyone. Remember the toilet paper shortage? Not introducing your baby to family is rough, but postpartum without toilet paper is a fun niche horror genre. Anyway, these experiences made it just so obvious: You can’t know what any other person is going through. All these characters in the film, as outrageous as they appear on the outside, are going through stuff.
- It does feel like there is a recurring sense of suppressed rage running through the film. Why was it important to explore female anger in this particular context?
Marchelle: I think women are sold to keep a veneer of perfection or keep it together no matter what the universe throws. This underscores the lives of most women I know, whether they have children or not.
Emily: In America, mothers learn early on that the system isn’t meant to support you. No postpartum medical care, no subsidised childcare. You receive paid leave only if you are especially lucky. I think people shouldn’t NOT be angry about that.
- Did you feel any pressure to soften some of the harsher truths the film presents?
Emily: Not really. Satire’s great for exploring heavy themes while also keeping an element of self-awareness and absurdity.
- The thrifted vintage wardrobe gives the film a heightened, almost surreal personality. How important was costume design in expressing the emotional states of these women?
Marchelle: We were exploring such big themes that we wanted reflected in our larger-than-life colour palette and wardrobe choices. On a macro level, we thought about the ancient Greek physician Hippocrates and his Four Temperaments in terms of what archetype each woman represented, then all the way down to which pastel colour of drugstore press-on nails would work. I’m a lifelong thriftier and have a sizeable number of archival pieces which I think made up 80% of the wardrobe.
Emily: Including your mom’s 1970s fluorescent green Maxi Dress, I’ve borrowed many times and that may or may not be covered in blood at a one point in the film —
Marchelle: And some secret thrift spots produced some really magical finds like the yellow 1960s shift dress worn by actress Renee Threatte found a few days before for $3. The colour-coordinating nylons also played a really important visual and symbolic role of how women are often marketed, physically constricting fashion trends like pantyhose and corsets and now the omnipresence of the shapewear industry.
- Tell us a bit about the casting process for this film. How did you decide on Mara Wilson being the perfect fit for this world and this role?
Marchelle: This project was born in part as a desire to work with our friends. Casting it was really – who of our favourite people is available on the shoot days?
Emily: Mara IS perfect, yes. Her acerbic wit, her presence. She’s a fantastic actor and grounded the ensemble scene. We had no time. Everyone got one take. She nailed it.
- You lost an actress on the first day of the shoot. Was that something that you had prepared for or anticipated? And how did that emotionally and creatively affect the rest of the shoot?
Marchelle: You know, with an incredibly compressed timeline, something can and will go wrong; it’s just a matter of what and when. In the scale of problems, losing an integral actor mere minutes before we were meant to shoot was one of the most trying situations I’ve ever been through. I think this is when I’m so thankful to have a collaborative relationship not only with Emily, but all of our cast and crew who were collectively able to deal with the situation at hand while making calls and flying in a wonderful friend to fill in with zero prep.
- With all your experience as filmmakers, what would you say making this particular film taught you?
Marchelle: A true collaboration will be a magical by-product I could never have done alone. Once again, I’m grateful to our community of actors and creators. Our composer, Grammy Winner, Amy Ileen Wood, is a lifelong collaborator and hero of mine. Along with our tireless editor, Mandy Brown who we are still making recut ideas. Short films are so much a labour of love, and our community really showed up for us, and we hope they love the film as much as we do.
- Finally, what’s next for you two after ‘Floored’? Are there plans for another film examining motherhood or something else?
Marchelle: We are very much focused on projects that center around the authentic points of view of women, whether in the medium of feature scripts we are currently developing or even in the ad world. I love working in the comedy space with Emily, as it’s there that you can really get into the gritty bits with a wink and a smile.
By the time the conversation wraps up, what stays with you most about Marchelle Bradanini and Emily Alpren isn’t just their brilliant shared creative voice, but the deep-seated trust and friendship that fuels it. ‘Floored’ may bravely look into the dark corners of maternal exhaustion, feeling invisible, and suppressed anger, but beneath all that candy-colored chaos lies a sweet, sincere compassion for women just trying to survive impossible standards.
This dynamic duo has a gorgeous ability to balance biting satire with emotional truth, giving the film a unique, rhythmic pulse that critiques the systems around modern femininity without ever losing its warmth or humour.
Their reflections on working hand in hand, staying resilient on set, and fiercely committing to authentic, female-centred storytelling prove that ‘Floored‘ is truly just the opening act of a fearless creative partnership that is beautifully rooted in honesty, vulnerability, and the saving grace of laughing through life’s absolute messiest moments.
