plural (love)

Narrative short film, 2022

plural (love) is an experimental short film that follows two bored and restless diner waitresses who receive a cryptic message… The evening quickly becomes a down-the-rabbit-hole adventure where these two friends surrender to their innermost desires.

How does the “best friend” archetype hold the potential for love and desire, as well as pain and metamorphosis? How does a “feminine friendship” encapsulate an entire universe of feelings and possibility? As writers of this film— and best friends in real life— we wanted to explore the running themes of our partnership through our two femme non-binary leads who encapsulate all the characters of this world; they become like mirrors to each other, that reflect all of their ever-shifting desires to be so many things at once. We wanted to use surrealist, dreamy, and humorist language to show how fluid a friendship can actually be: these two are at once best friends, co-workers, lovers, elders, timeless people who emerge from the dirt, siblings, etc., and that the capacity to experience a simultaneity of feelings– like wonder, desire, and even discomfort and pain together– ultimately speaks to bonds that center the power of femininity, and that femininity is not only caring and gentle, but it can be raw, pulsing and divine.

cast & crew

Director: Sophiyaa Nayar
Writers: Jen Goma, Haruna Lee
Exec Producers WP Theater, BJ Evans, Jen Goma, Haruna Lee, Sophiyaa Nayar
Cinematographer: Helena Gruensteidl
Prod design: Deilis Curiel
Editor: Kate Freer
Costume design: Karen Boyer
Talent: Jen Goma, Haruna Lee
Associate producer: Penzi Hill
Composer: Jen Goma
Lyricist: Haruna Lee
1st AD: Lauren La Melle
Asst Set Dec: Katherine Guanche
1st ACs: Haley J. Shaw, Katie Colwell
Sound mixer: Mariya Chulichkova
Gaffer: Eli Kravetz
Key grip: Mykiah Wiggins
Grips: John Valle, Luca Blankenship
HMUL Paula Salas Bloise
PAs: Mo Gooding-Silverwood, Shane Mendoza
Colorist: Max Drenckpohl
Sound design: Jen Goma
Sound mix & master: Matt Chilton
VFX/animation: Tague Zachary
Digital Illustrations: JP Kim
Tarot card illustration: Tamara Crasto

plural (love) performance installation

Jen Goma and Haruna Lee flirt with the boundaries of desire, power, and responsibility, building an environment that feels akin to stepping into a soft BDSM roleplay. Always written and performed anew based on its audience and physical surroundings (from the NY Hall of Science planetarium, to theatre festivals, to a hotel), plural (love) is an opportunity for Goma, Green & Lee to report their latest findings on love, desire, intimacy, sex and sexuality, and its relationship to transparency, ethics, and equity. 

Originally inspired by auto-theorists such as Audre Lorde, Assata Shakur, Claudia Rankine, Maggie Nelson, and Roland Barthes, Goma, Green & Lee layer political, cultural, and social theory with their own autobiographical stories, especially focusing on the conundrum that Goma and Lee have faced in their experience of desire and being desired as Asian American women. The body of this series is largely written and performed by Lee and Goma while Green directs, and they perform their musings through a pastiche of intricate styles that include pop songs with lyrics by Sartre, ritual, live podcasts, intimate humor, and radical truth-telling.

development history

WP Lab: Pipeline Festival 2020 - 2022
with BJ Evans, Jen Goma, Haruna Lee & Sophiyaa Nayar

Soho Rep Writer/Director Lab Showings: January 19th & 20th 2019 at WalkerSpace
with Jen Goma & Haruna Lee

New Georges Jam 2017 - 2019
with Morgan Green, Jen Goma & Haruna Lee

LALA Festival - July 2018
with Jen Goma & Haruna Lee

NY Hall of Science The Stars Hold Our Stories - October 2018
with Jen Goma & Haruna Lee

Arlo NoMad Hotel RSVP - October 2018
with Jen Goma & Haruna