Guest Submission: A Love Letter to Film and Friendship

by Hannah Grace Maur

This is for the friends I met in college—the ones who became my forever family. We chased our film dreams together and stumbled through early adulthood, figuring things out as we went. We imagined a future where we’d grow in this industry side by side, but the pandemic changed everything and sent us back to our hometowns.

Years later, when we returned to the city, things weren’t the same. Some of us took corporate jobs, and others left filmmaking entirely. But our love for cinema is what brought us together in the first place, and it’s why I found the people I know I’ll love forever.

The small production we started when we were young still exists, and we still create from time to time. We all have our own lives now, and the reality is that we can’t produce as much or as often as we used to. But we still talk, we still catch up, and we still nerd out about cinema whenever we can—and that’s something I really value.

Most of us are nearing our 30s now, and it’s heartwarming to think that we were once just college kids with a camera and a dream.

Hannah Grace Maur is a filmmaker from the Philippines @twistere1la