Documentary filmmaker Chelsea McMullen takes the director’s chair in this anthemic music video from For Esmé, an unabashedly feminist pop band fronted by Toronto-based musician Martha Meredith. The film, conceived and co-directed by multi-disciplinary performance company Quote Unquote Collective, with Israeli choreographer Orian Michaeli, explores the boundary between self-regulation and self-acceptance, combining fluid movement with the band’s poppy and beat-driven sound. 

Speaking of this tender and uplifting project, McMullen explains: “It is an exquisitely vulnerable performance shot entirely on 16mm film, showcasing the expressive movement of bodies in public spaces—revealing the mess of desires and emotions that women are so often taught to swallow and contain.”