Among the most stunning directorial debuts I caught at Indy Shorts was Sebastian Delascasas’ “Promise,” a symphony of emotionally charged silences disrupted by sudden revelations. In the role of Chris, a teen who reveals a horrifying truth to his pal (played by Delascasas) during a night of video gaming, Rupert Fennessy is utterly mesmerizing—and his work is all the more impressive when one learns that he only had five hours to prepare for it. While speaking with Delascasas, he told me that he was born in Colombia, South America, and moved to Qatar in the Middle East at age seven before attending college at NYU.

“As the cultures around me very drastically changed, along with the people and their thoughts, I realized how the idea of right and wrong is what we actually make it be,” said Delascasas. “I am fascinated when people disagree on something, and if viewers leave my movie arguing about it, I’m happy. My idea with ‘Promise’ was to turn a question mark into a short film, and my favorite thing is hearing the audience uncomfortably shifting in their seats while watching it.”

“In watching thousands of films every year, I am driven by discovery and finding diamonds in the rough from cold submissions. When a short comes across my queue that is seemingly simple or expected and transforms into something much more profound and compelling, I get excited and imagine our audiences taking this same journey with me months later.”

“Promise” is a one-location, dialogue-driven story but subverts all expectations after its initial setup, offering a tense “what would you do?” scenario with believable acting and writing (something that is frankly much harder for filmmakers to execute, especially first-timers).

Director/writer/actor Sebastian Delascasas does so much with so little, and we anchored our “Let’s Be Honest” program at Indy Shorts with the film when initially piecing together the lineup. The film ended up being a world premiere at Indy Shorts, and we are thrilled to have launched Sebastian’s festival career with a story we believed in from the first viewing. Expect to hear much more about Sebastian in the years to come and check out “Promise” if you can!”

Greg Sorvig — Artistic Director, Heartland Film Festival