DIRECTOR'S STATEMENT

Based on true events, Stand Clear ’ the Closing Doors explores the subtle, often unspoken tensions that Black women encounter in everyday public spaces. Set on the New York City subway, the film captures a brief moment of forced proximity, where assumptions, entitlement, and connection quietly surface in ways that are easy to miss but difficult to forget.

 

I wrote the script and brought it to the screen in just two months, gathering my artistic community to shoot guerrilla-style on the subway in a single six-hour window. That urgency shaped the film’s tone, mirroring how these moments unfold in real life: quickly, unexpectedly, and without pause or preparation.

 

At its core, this film is about reclamation. Black women are so often expected to accommodate and care for others, to our own detriment. An expectation so ingrained it can go unquestioned, especially in public spaces. At the time of the incident that inspired this film, I was learning to break this pattern. The film is both a reflection and a response. It is a record of self-possession in real time.

 

Although the short stands on its own, it exists within the same autobiographical landscape as a television pilot I had already written, both drawing from my experience living and moving through New York City. In making the film, I began to see how this moment could live alongside a broader constellation of stories shaped by that same world.

 

With Stand Clear ’ the Closing Doors, I aim to create space for and shine a light on Black women, affirming our right to exist freely in the world. That we can stand (or sit), clear in our humanity, audaciously and unapologetically.

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Stacey Sargeant, Writer - Director