Go backBack to selection

“It Was All There, in One Afternoon” | Rachel Fleit, Sugar Babies

Two young women sit on a bed and look into a phone camera illuminated by a ring light.Sugar Babies, courtesy of Sundance Institute.

Films are made over many days, but some days are more memorable, and important, than others. Imagine yourself in ten years looking back on this production. What day from your film’s development, production or post do you think you’ll view as the most significant and why?

I could tell Autumn, the main subject of the film, was a little nervous when we met on the first day of filming. It was understandable—we’d only met through a Zoom call, and now we were there, cameras in hand. But by the second day, we found our rhythm. Autumn invited us to her niece’s birthday party at the lake—a big, beautiful gathering of family and friends.

We kept it simple: smaller cameras, minimal setup. The goal was to melt into the background, to really let the day happen as if we weren’t even there. What we captured was magic. Autumn with her people, totally herself—laughing, talking, loving. You could feel the warmth between her and her family, the kind of easy connection that only comes from deep love. It was everything I love about filmmaking: pure, unfiltered life.

Then, as the party began to wind down and guests started leaving, something shifted. Autumn and her friend Bonnie casually grabbed their phones, pulled up the sugar baby app, and said with a little laugh, “Let’s make some money.”  Suddenly, we were filming a completely different but equally honest moment.  They went live right there, sitting by the lake, as the sun left its last traces of the day in the sky.

What struck me—and what I hope we captured—was how seamlessly these two worlds coexist for Autumn. The deep, grounding connection of her family and the pragmatic hustle of making a living. It was all there, in one afternoon:  love, survival, and her quiet resilience to navigate both.

See all responses to our annual Sundance Question here.
© 2025 Filmmaker Magazine. All Rights Reserved. A Publication of The Gotham