The Cinderella Effect

Randall Grimm has arrived in Los Angeles in search of his very own happy ending. Within moments of arriving, however, Randall is thrust into the very high-pressure networking atmosphere of a local LGBTQ film festival that his friend insists on attending. Awkward and out-of-place, Randall holds fast to the notion that Hollywood produces its very own happy endings. Soon, he imagines the high-pressure after-party to become the all-too-familiar royal ball of a fairytale; the cynical partygoers adopt the characteristics of evil stepsisters, and Prince Charming exists in the body of a Hollywood Leading Man. However, no Cinderella story can exist without a Fairy Godmother, and Randall deconstructs his happy-ever-after notions so he can discover that the only thing real in Hollywood is the FINAL REEL of whatever genre we write for ourselves.

• lgbt