Image+Nation
HAPPY HOUR

HAPPY HOUR

ANDREA RAMOLO | CANADA | 2026 | 6 MIN | ENGLISH

ANDREA RAMOLO | CANADA | 2026 | 6 MIN | ENGLISH

VIRTUALShortMADE AU CANADA

Synopsis

During happy hour at the only bar in town, a newlywed couple's quarrel collides with a belligerent bigot — until a strange girl by the jukebox decides that last will come early tonight.

Filmmaker Bio

Andrea Ramolo is an award-winning filmmaker, music video director, recording artist, actor, dancer, songwriter and educator. She created and produced the feature documentary The South, winner of the 2023 Canadian Ethnic Media Award for Best Documentary. Her award-winning shorts include Baby and A Night Under the Stars in a Parking Lot, and she directed and produced Happy Hour. Ramolo also won a Canadian Independent Music Video Award in 2022. A York University theatre graduate, she is the founder and artistic director of Toronto's OUR MUSIC FESTIVAL, highlighting women and gender-diverse headliners.

Director's Statement

This film began as a revenge fantasy. […] Watching it all go down is the jukebox girl who never speaks. Her silence is intentional. The film is interested in who gets to take up space and who is expected to absorb it. […] I wanted our quiet heroine to find her release—the release so many of us crave in a world that continuously tells us to shut up and smile. […] The film is about the moment you decide you no longer have to endure all of that.

Producer

Sayla De Goede, Andrea Ramolo

Writer

Laura Stubbs, Andrea Ramolo, Sayla De Goede

Cast

  • Sayla De Goede
  • Manuel Rodriguez-Saenz
  • Heather Lobban
  • Jimi Shlag
  • Jajube Mandiela
  • Scott Baker
  • Yana Gold
  • Luke Keable
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