Selected video adaptations of stories I wrote. More videos and animations will be added here in the coming weeks, including animation, short film and dance collaborations I’ve done with artists and writers participating in The Creative Process.
“Let’s make love. It’s not safe to kiss.”
I can’t believe you are saying this now. I didn’t even know you thought of me that way or at all.
It is dark, and we are breaking curfew. I have a scarf under my eyes because I lost my mask in the street when kids who’d come in from the banlieue surrounded me and tried to steal my food. We have found a quiet place in the corridor to make love. Found, as though you needed to look far to find silence. There is no one in the streets. Paris is a desert in the middle of winter.
I didn’t know you had thought of me, but I had thought of you often. Yes. Imagined a kiss. Maybe even fingertips, made myself breathless thinking of this. A single finger passing over naked skin…
Forthcoming in Elle Leva Magazine.
A very short video I made with a little help from nature.
Story and video by Mia Funk Shown as part of Andromeda Sisters, Neo-Political Cowgirls' Gala in East Hampton, NY. It was lovely to have the chance to take part alongside these wonderful performers and writers. Organized by the multi-talented Kate Mueth and The Neo-Political Cowgirls, the performances can still be seen throughout August. bit.ly/3hoskII August 14th participants included: Blythe Danner (“Will & Grace,” “Huff”), Joy Behar (“The View”), Lucy Boyle (The Blue Deep), Dipti Bramhandkar (The Accident), Lynn Grossman (TriQuarterly, Story Quarterly, Equator Magazine), Tanya Everett (The Public, HERE, The Tank), Catherine Curtin, (“Homeland,” “Stranger Things,” “Orange Is The New Black”), Laura Gomez, (“Orange Is The New Black”) Florencia Lozano (“Narcos,” “As The World Turns”), Welker White, (The Irishman, Goodfellas, The Wolf Of Wall Street), Ellen Dolan (“As The World Turns”), Sarah Bierstock (“Honor Killing”). Sept 3rd: Conversations of Imperative Urgency With Those Making Powerful Change For Social Justice . Participants: Integrity First For America Executive Director Amy Spitalnick, attorney Roberta Kaplan, and Kerry Kennedy (President of Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights). – In My Dreams by Mia Funk In my dreams we are moving through corridors and taking each other by the hand and there is music playing in other rooms, but we barely hear it for the pulse of blood that leads us to leave our lives behind. All the children and the mothers and disappointed lovers who are waiting for us in other rooms with all their obligations and timetables and needs and certainties and clockwork lives. In my dreams there are no clocks, only shadows and cries of love, and arguments which end in lovemaking. In my dreams there are no mornings, only nights and late afternoons, and cats climbing in and out of windows like acrobats, arching their backs and purring and asking to be petted. There are flowers on windowsills which sometimes break and shatter but never make a sharp noise which could cut our ears. And anyway in my dreams we don’t hear the voices of others, only raindrops and footsteps and children playing outside our window. I close the blinds and watch the sunlight filter through making strange shapes upon the ceiling and walls and the sheets of our bed. A car passes and I am removing my dress with its pattern of flowers and snowflakes. I feel your fingers slipping between the zip and feel myself being slowly unwrapped like a present on Christmas Eve. First the bow and then the wrapper and then the lid is cracked and I am there inside, naked and waiting. In my dreams we do not speak or I do all the talking. You are quiet, or more quiet than you are with others, with whom you joke or feel a need to please. To be smart and earn their praise. You know you need to do nothing to please me. I am already yours. Are you dreaming the same dream as me? Or is your dream just a cheap fantasy and my part could be played by any bit player, any woman at all would do. As long as she has a nice face and a good figure and is willing. I want to clarify your intensions because if it is one of those dreams, I don’t want to be a part of it. It would be so easy to stay here under the covers with my eyes closed. Is that your dream–it will be hard and it will hurt–but if that’s your dream I will force my eyes open
And I will rise and wake to a world without you
It was lovely to have the chance to take part in Andromeda Sisters Forum alongside these wonderful performers and writers. Organized by the multi-talented Kate Mueth and The Neo-Political Cowgirls.
Participants included Blythe Danner (“Will & Grace,” “Huff”), Joy Behar (“The View”), Lucy Boyle (The Blue Deep), Dipti Bramhandkar (The Accident), Lynn Grossman (TriQuarterly, Story Quarterly, Equator Magazine), Tanya Everett (The Public, HERE, The Tank), Catherine Curtin, (“Homeland,” “Stranger Things,” “Orange Is The New Black”), Laura Gomez, (“Orange Is The New Black”) Florencia Lozano (“Narcos,” “As The World Turns”), Welker White, (The Irishman, Goodfellas, The Wolf Of Wall Street), Ellen Dolan (“As The World Turns”), Sarah Bierstock (“Honor Killing”).
In my dreams we are moving through corridors and taking each other by the hand and there is music playing in other rooms, but we barely hear it for the pulse of blood that leads us to leave our lives behind… Continue reading the story In My Dreams.
Love, For a Limited Time Only
by Mia Funk
The first time I saw her she was in a window. Under her left breast was taped a cardboard sign: Love, For a Limited Time Only. That’s what caught my eye, the sign, not her breasts, though those were nice too. I stared at the sign a moment, reading it over like a poem to reveal its secret meaning. Her hands so still, I thought she was a mannequin. Took me a moment to see that she was breathing.
READ IT on The Dreaming Machine
Waiting for Dark
She had long legs for a Japanese, at least for what I imagined Japanese women were like, and that’s why it took longer to dispose of her. I always thought of them as shy and submissive, short and malnourished, like the kids in my barrio. He told me she’d been a dancer. He talked a lot, more than I expected of a Japanese. Of course he could have been lying, they do that. Try to get you on their side, so you’ll understand and maybe feel sorry for them because they’re afraid you’ll rat them out…
The Night Train
Inspired by my interview with Hans-Ulrich Obrist, Artistic Director of Serpentine Gallery
for The Creative Process
What Do We Have in Our Pockets?
Animated Short Film Coming Soon in collaboration with Etgar Keret’s StoryVid and collaborating students
First full day out in months and I went a little wild!...One thing the crisis has made us all appreciate more is the importance of the arts. I’m so honored to be a small part of this great big community whose whole purpose is to encourage us to feel, to think…and to love.
Over a year since the fire in Notre Dame and now corona virus, but we’ll get through this too, together.
Be safe and keep on surviving!
For more stories which have recently appeared in magazines and podcasts, see Selected Writing.
