8 Count

Sonia Michelle Yetming's directorial debut, a short film headed for the festival circuit.

Short film · Written & directed by Sonia Michelle Yetming · Starring Sydney Leary and Robert Logan Mays · Status: Pending Festival Runs

The story

Some stories are written to entertain us. Others are written to make us look at ourselves.

There are certain parts of love that we all understand, but few of us want to talk about honestly. The moments when love and hurt become difficult to separate. When the person who knows you best is also the person who can hurt you most. When you begin to question not only your relationship, but your understanding of what it means to love someone in the first place.

About the Film

8 Count is a short film written, produced, and directed by Sonia Michelle Yetming, starring Sydney Leary and Robert Logan Mays.

“A young couple's quiet dinner spirals into an emotional slugfest, mirrored by a brutal boxing match, as love and ego go blow-for-blow.”

8 Count is a story about the complexities of romantic partnership. It explores the difficult realities that can emerge when two people try to love one another, and the truths about ourselves that relationships have a way of bringing to light.

I wanted to tell a story that doesn't shy away from the darker corners of intimacy. Not because I believe love is inherently painful, but because I think we do ourselves a disservice when we only make room for the beautiful parts of it.

Love can be extraordinary. It can also be confusing, uncomfortable, and deeply revealing. Sometimes, the most important things we learn about ourselves come from the relationships we struggle to understand.

Director’s statement

I wrote 8 Count because I am fascinated by the gap between what we believe a relationship should be and what it actually asks of us.

We enter relationships carrying our own histories, expectations, fears, and ideas about love. We bring the lessons we learned from our families, the things we promised ourselves we would never repeat, and the things we hope another person will somehow make right. And then we meet someone, fall in love, and discover that knowing how to love someone and knowing how to build a healthy partnership are not necessarily the same thing.

I wanted to explore that distinction.

What does it mean to be a good partner? What do we owe the people we love, and what do we owe ourselves? Where does patience become self-abandonment? How do we distinguish between fighting for a relationship and refusing to accept what it has become?

I think the discomfort of not having an easy answer is part of what makes them worth exploring.

Writing this film meant sitting with some of those questions myself. It meant examining the ways we rationalize things, the truths we avoid when they're inconvenient, and the complicated reasons we sometimes stay in situations that ask more of us than we know how to give.

I didn't want to write a story that simply told an audience what to think. I wanted to create one that made them feel something, question something, and perhaps recognize something in themselves.

I wanted to approach 8 Count with that level of intention. I was interested in the emotional details: the pauses, the contradictions, the subtle shifts in a relationship that might seem insignificant in isolation but become impossible to ignore when viewed together.

A Story That Belongs to More Than Just Me

One of the things I love most about filmmaking is the possibility that a story born from one person's perspective can become meaningful to someone whose life looks entirely different.

We may not share the same experiences, but we understand what it feels like to want to be loved. To want to be understood. To hope that something will change. To struggle with the difference between who someone is and who we believe they could be.

I think that's what makes stories about relationships so universal. They give us a way to examine experiences we might otherwise struggle to articulate.

I hope audiences watching 8 Count will recognize pieces of themselves in it. Maybe they'll see a familiar dynamic, remember a difficult conversation, or think about a relationship that changed the way they understand love. Maybe they'll disagree with the characters' choices. Maybe they'll find themselves understanding those choices more than they'd like to admit.

And maybe two people will watch the same film and walk away with entirely different interpretations of what happened. Ultimately, I hope 8 Count encourages people to look a little closer.

To think about the relationships they have experienced, the partnerships they are building, and the beliefs about love they have carried with them. To consider whether the things they have come to accept are things they genuinely believe in, or simply things they have grown accustomed to.

Most importantly, I hope the film makes room for honest reflection without insisting on a single conclusion.

Relationships are complicated because people are complicated. Loving someone doesn't mean you will always understand them, and being loved doesn't mean every need will be met. Partnership asks us to navigate those realities with care, accountability, and a willingness to confront truths that aren't always comfortable.

I am incredibly proud to bring this project to life, and I look forward to sharing it with you.

Thank you for being here, and for making space for stories that ask us to feel deeply, think honestly, and see ourselves a little differently.

What's next

Keep an eye out for festival announcements!