Sepand Mashiahof: “We’re Really Worried About You” is a powerful concept on its own, and Takaiya was able to shade in that title for us in a way that resonated in my own history with abuse, gaslighting, manipulation, etc. We were able to also use the conversation to talk about cultural amnesia (specifically the US or any imperialist/colonialist nation’s denial of its own atrocities) and its reflection on micro-level power dynamics, and how one emaciates into silence when no one is willing to hear their pain, specifically if that pain is a direct threat to white supremacist cis-heterosexist society. The world is structured to mold us down into stunted vessels that have to gaslight ourselves of our own truths/experiences just to survive. This video felt like an expression of that process: the desperation to be heard and the stonewall silence that pushes you into the void of perpetual self-doubt and self-sabotage. 

The concept and the collaboration aspects seemed to also mirror what it takes to move through this grief, that you need friends and community to be able to address these things together and help each other heal through it.

Chi Chi: For me this project could be seen as an expression of collective grief, or maybe the feeling of unexpressed grief … when we start to question ourselves and give power to the belief that whatever happened to us wasn’t real. Of course, we always find a way to survive. We know how to survive! But the process is as draining as it is painful and isolating.