Peppermint Pixie Dream Girl
Coming Soon
West Hollywood, CA
The Marilyn Monroe Theatre
Femme Filth
Short
Digital/16mm
Color
In a luscious 1950s hellscape, a waitress named Shirley May Holmes's ultimate sexual fantasy manifests into Dorothy: the Peppermint Pixie Dream Girl. They plan a date to the drive-in movies, but Shirley has much to conquer if she wants to land a kiss from Dorothy's candy lips. Transphobic greasers, hetero-nonsense, and the nuclear blast itself will all come crashing down upon Shirley on this pivotal night... She may just need a little help to make it to sunrise alive.
Written & Directed by
KYLIE MUNGENAST
Produced by
LIZ DAVIS & DESTINY GREER
Starring
ZOEY LUNA as Shirley May Holmes
ABBY LANGH as Dorothy Pearson ‘The Peppermint Pixie Dream Girl’
Official Poster by Gabriela Johanna Mierkalne
Director Statement
Following a bender consisting of embarrassing disasters at lesbian bars and dating apps, I weaved queer loneliness with my crippling fear of the crumbling world around me to create a 1950s pastel palimpsest: a tale of a waitress and a pinup girl in a luscious lesbian love bomb which I call Peppermint Pixie Dream Girl.
I originally wrote the vessel into the world of Peppermint Pixie Dream Girl, a ditsy dyke named Shirley May Holmes, as a self-insert. We share the same food allergies, the same love for an Almond Joy, and the same attraction to straight passing femmes. That all said, I became interested in casting someone who felt like the opposite of me to play Shirley in hopes that it may aid in crafting internal tension within the character. Zoey Luna and I are both transgender women, but we embraced the aspects of our unique individualism as we birthed Shirley’s character. For example, Zoey is a trans woman of color, whereas I am not, and the two of us express our femininity in very different ways. “Passing” became a critical part of our narrative conversation within relation to how “transvestigation” endangers all women. Shirley’s reading of ‘Acidic Rain, Acidic Rain,’ a poem by my late friend, John Blomquist, marks the turning point in Peppermint Pixie Dream Girl where the seemingly whimsical world on screen shares haunting commonalities with our own devastating reality. Zoey Luna’s notoriety as a scream queen manifests in Peppermint Pixie Dream Girl’s harrowing third act, where the literal and metaphorical mutilation of women’s bodies entertains violent men while nuclear annihilation beckons.
The world in Peppermint Pixie Dream Girl feels just as apocalyptic as the one we inhabit in America’s current fascist state, but the film features a sole beacon of hope: a peppermint-clad pinup girl named Dorothy, hence the title. Abby Langh, who portrays this deuteragonist character, shares a mutual passion with me for traversing the female gaze. In a sensually-charged sapphic recontextualization of the “manic pixie dream girl,” Abby’s own background as a queer model and her intuition as an actress inform Dorothy’s vibrant agency in an experience of embodied identification. Despite Dorothy’s familiarity with the male gaze and her internalized homophobia upon first experiencing the female gaze, Dorothy grows to foil the self-repressed men in this world as she chooses to put her life on the line in an act of allyship instead of receding into self-preservation.
I had no choice but to dedicate over a year of my life to making this short film. I hope this entry into the trans cinematic consciousness provides an equally poignant catharsis to its queer audience, as well as much to ponder and reflect for any cis-hets who happen to stumble upon this lesbian pulp extravaganza.
Cast & Crew
Zoey Luna is the scream queen you’ve been dying to see! With a bloody passion for horror starting since her breakout role as Lourdes in Blumhouse’s The Craft Legacy, to her role in Parker Brennon’s horror Anthology Hauntology, and her lead role in Kyra Gardner & Jimmi Simpson’s slasher / dramedy SLAY. Zoey is set to leave her mark on the screen for audiences all around.
Abby Langh does it all. She is an emerging actress, writer, director, producer, a prolific model, and a figure skater. Abby developed her own film production company, Lesbian Fantasy Films, to reclaim the cinematic medium’s frequent sexualization of queer women, and to produce narrative film pieces focusing on women and same-sex relationships across different genres.
Destiny Greer’s works typically focus on feminist aesthetics and human rights issues. Her most notable works are feature film Jellyfish Season (Produced By), short film #toxic_postitivity (Produced By), and PBS special Merrily Together (Co-Producer). Destiny is also an experimental 16mm filmmaker, who hand edits and processes her films like Him, Her Them and V for Vulva, which was nominated for Best Experimental at Atlanta Underground Film Festival.
Filmmaking wasn’t always Liz’s passion. She first got her start in musical theatre, performing with the Sarasota Youth Opera and in school productions. At age 15, a friend asked Liz to act in a short film for their college admission portfolio. Here, she discovered she felt more fulfilled behind the camera rather than in front. Now, with a decade of experience writing, directing, and producing films, Liz is focused on crafting stories that highlight women, the LGBTQ+ community, and youth.
Reviews & Press
Warped Perspective
Film Threat
Stills