Shorts 6: Wanderlust – After Mountains

About the Filmmaker

Julie Peley was born and raised in Paris, France, and moved to the United States in 2018. Her passion for writing and photography led her to film school in Paris, where she started developing a desire to capture moving images, and to tell stories through the medium of motion pictures.

Now a 3rd year Graduate student in the MFA program at the University of Miami, she has already worked on many sets as a director of photography, editor and director, and her two most recent productions have received multiple awards. Coming from a French culture background, she is always interested in mixing her influences with international collaborators, to create a unique voice into her work.

Director’s Statement

This story is based on my personal history and what happened to my family and myself when I was a child. The loss of my grandpa was the most traumatizing and learning experience of my life, and I want to bring the audience’s attention on how to deal with children’s emotions while experiencing such a hard and complex situation to comprehend.

Part of the story also comes from what my best friend experienced as a kid, meeting this friend in a hospital. This very intense and powerful friendship that she described to me touched me immensely and I wanted to translate it in a film, showing how impactful someone can be in your life, and how subtle and beautiful feelings can be between young people, who don’t necessarily understand the way the adult world works.

I believe that I have a very strong vision for this story, through which I really want us to see through the eyes of Ellie, how she perceives her environment, and how different it can be from an adult’s perspective.