melanie notinger

CHOKE ARTIST explores how anxiety affects the voice and how hard it can be to communicate authentically. I started doing stand-up in 2015, shortly after coming out as queer. It was a way for me to find my new voice. A fresh BFA acting grad living in Austin, I auditioned for lots of projects and saw myself in very few of the scripts. Working as a bar host at the time, most of my job was daydreaming. One night at the host stand, I spaced out as usual and twisted my choker around my finger. That feeling of unaware asphyxiation inspired me to write about an imaginative, blunt comedian onstage unable to self-express off-stage. I wrote the project to star in, tired of not feeling seen by the roles I was auditioning for. Guided by my obsessions with Shakespearian verse and the imagery in Alan Ball's AMERICAN BEAUTY screenplay, the film investigates how our fantasy lives can motivate action in our waking lives and the power of simply speaking up.