Kiss Me Softly

Seventeen-year-old Jasper lives in a small town in Belgium, where his father is a local singer and the center of attention at home. With every conversation revolving around his father's career, Jasper has little room to be himself, and his own life feels dull and overlooked. Then a friend surprises him with a kiss, and everything changes. Suddenly Jasper feels ready to accept himself, but the bigger challenge is getting his self-absorbed father to see him for who he really is. Written and directed by Anthony Schatteman, this sixteen-minute Flemish-language short stars Ezra Fieremans as Jasper, with Marijke Pinoy, Marc Van eeghem and Tim Bogaerts. Kiss Me Softly screened at Frameline in San Francisco, and it is a tender, gently humorous coming-of-age story about family, identity and the courage to step out of someone else's shadow.