SPEEDWAY
Short Film

Project Type: Short Film
Project Status: Pre-Production
Director: Angela Lorena Statnik
Producer: Laney Brabson
Director of Photography: Mariscela Beatríz Méndez ‍VFX Supervisor and Motion Designer: Felipe Figueroa
Production Designer: Sabrina Suarez

LOGLINE

In 1962, upon unauthorized use of a model car from her father’s collection to play with the boys, Susan, passionate about car-racing, defeats gender inequality and domestic violence when championing her own life path.

SYNOPSIS

Set in California in 1962, 10-year old Susan yearns to join her neighbors, the Pitts brothers, in their homemade car racing game. Sneaking a 1:18 scale model from her father's collection, she enters the competition, where the winner takes the loser's cars. Despite the game being for boys, William, the leader, allows her to play due to his interest in her car. As the race unfolds, Susan imagines a thrilling competition, but a memory of domestic violence give her determination. However, she ultimately loses when her car skids on oil, allowing William to win and take her father's model car. Susan's father violently reacts to his missing car, leading to her being beaten. Nearby, Mr. Pitts tries to help but is unsuccessful. Days later, Susan and her mother flee, leaving William with guilt over the incident.

Sixty years later, terminally ill, William seeks forgiveness from a now-joyful Susan, a retired car-racing champion. He confesses to cheating in their childhood game and returns the car model, allowing him to release his guilt and understand the impact of her past.

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MORE ABOUT THIS PROJECT

SpeedWay is a short film that blends grounded realism with heightened imagination to explore memory, resilience, and redemption. Set in present day California, the story begins with a restrained visual approach as William, now in his 70s and terminally ill, arrives at Susan’s home seeking closure. These contemporary scenes rely on natural light, still compositions, and minimal camera movement to foreground performance and emotional authenticity.

In contrast, Susan’s childhood memories unfold in the hazy summer of the 1960s through a warm, golden visual palette inspired by Moonrise Kingdom. Handheld cinematography, textured grain, and sun flares evoke the vitality and freedom of childhood. The children’s homemade racetrack, built from everyday materials such as wood scraps, plastic tubing, rope, paint, and tape, becomes a central visual metaphor. Its naïf markings transform an ordinary playground into a space of invention, agency, and survival.

As the race begins, the film introduces an innovative hybrid language combining live action with hand drawn animation. Susan’s imagination comes alive through candy colored skies, drifting sea stars, guiding fish, and a luminous rainbow path. These animated elements are layered seamlessly into the physical environment, inviting the audience to experience the story from within Susan’s emotional perspective and deepening viewer engagement through visual immersion.

This sense of wonder is counterbalanced by moments of intrusion and tension. A hyper real wolf appears at the edges of Susan’s fantasy, embodying the threat of her father’s violence. As she approaches the tunnel leading to the finish line, memory and fear converge through rapid flashes, sharp contrasts, and distorted imagery inspired by Seconds. These moments visually articulate trauma without explicit depiction, making the film accessible while emotionally resonant.

Tonally, Speedway draws inspiration from Matilda (1996), blending whimsy with darkness to reach both younger and adult audiences. Beneath its playful surface, the film addresses domestic violence, gender inequality, and the lasting impact of silence. By positioning imagination as an act of resistance, Speedway delivers a hopeful and empowering message about the courage it takes to confront the past and move forward.

Meet The Filmmakers

Angela Lorena Statnik

Director
Angela Lorena Statnik is a Colombian filmmaker with more than 16 years of experience in the industry. She is distinguished by a cinematic vision that challenges conventional narratives through absurdism and deep psychological exploration. Her below the line career as a Script Supervisor in Hollywood, where she became the first Colombian immigrant to join IATSE Local 871, has endowed her with exceptional narrative and technical rigor, elevating her transition into directing.
Specializing in fantasy cross-genre, Angela takes everyday realities into surreal worlds in order to question, criticize and denounce behaviors that impact societal structures. Her professional training includes film production studies in Hollywood, supported by the Young Talented Artists Scholarship (Icetex, 2016) and a grant from the Hollywood Foreign Press Association (HFPA, 2019).
With her recent dark fantasy short film Candy Puppet, she has achieved significant international milestones. A successful festival tour in 2024, including its world premiere at LA Shorts, its European premiere at the SITGES, and its Latin American premiere at Bogoshorts. Her original screenplay for the short film Pista (SpeedWay), currently in pre production, was awarded Best Screenplay at the California Women’s Film Festival in 2023, and was also a semifinalist at the Vail Film Festival and the Rhode Island International Film Festival.
As a multidisciplinary creator, Angela is currently leading an ambitious slate of projects spanning short form content and premium series. Among them is Underground, the series with which she makes her debut as an episodic writer/director, marking a pivotal shift in her career toward original content creation and executive leadership. She is also taking a leap directing her adapted feature film Wheels Without Sequins, a project with a strong development trajectory most recently as a fellow writer in the Lab Macondo (Women Screenwriting Adaptation), organized by the Colombian Film Academy, Fundacion Gabo, and Netflix. Her portfolio is further rounded out by the short form anthology Marionettes World, inspired by human behavior taken to its extreme set in a surreal visual aesthetic, and the original feature fairytale film Tears Collector, both currently in development. In 2024 Angela was also a semifinalist for the SeriesFest Women Directors Mentorship program presented by Shondaland and a finalist for the Cherokee Elevation’s Program.
Laney Brabson

Producer
Laney Brabson is a Producer and an Entrepreneur, with a diverse background in finance, sales, art and design. Her recent achievements include producing the African Academy Awardwinning film “Neighborhood Alert” which was an official selection in festivals all over the world, securing many wins in multiple categories. As a Producer, she has a passion for storytelling and a commitment to creating narratives that drive social change. As a partner and owner of a successful architecture and design firm, she brings her creative vision to life. Additionally, Laney serves as the Vice President on the Board of Directors for a foundation and is an active member of the Finance Committee.
Felipe Figueroa

Producer/Animation Director
Felipe Figueroa is a Colombian professional in Visual Arts, Visual Effects Artist, and postproduction director with more than fifteen years of experience in advertising, episodic and feature film. Felipe has managed live action as well as 2D and 3D animation projects from preproduction up to editorial finishing. Their strong knowledge on character and props animation, VFX pipeline, color management and broadcasting, among other skills, has allowed them to create technical and artistic solutions for different kinds of needs according to the project’s nature. Among their filmography you can find Barbie, Beatle Juice, Deadpool vs Wolverine, Wonka, Luis Miguel (series) and His Dark Materials.
Mariscela Beatríz Méndez

Cinematographer
Mariscela Beatríz Méndez is a Director of Photography from San Antonio, Texas, whose work is deeply informed by her Mexican-American heritage. She gravitates toward projects that explore Latiné identity, center female perspectives, and incorporate elements of magical realism.
Méndez is one of the honorees of the International Cinematographers Guild’s 2025 Emerging Cinematographer Awards for The Middle, written and directed by Sylvia Ray. This year, she was nominated twice at the Mexican-American Film & TV Festival for “Best Cinematography,” ultimately winning for her work on the surreal vampire short Vivir, written and directed by Gerardo Maravilla.
Her notable credits include Las Hijas de Rosalia, executive produced by Lin-Manuel Miranda and premiered at the Tribeca Film Festival; serving as LA Unit DP for the documentary Faithful Defenders, executive produced by Cate Blanchett and Dirty Films; and Water Angel, her second collaboration with director Nijla Mu’Min for Paramount+.
Méndez’s fellowships include the 2024 ReFrame Rise Fellowship in partnership with Women in Film and the Sundance Institute. She is also an alumna of the ASC Vision Mentor Program, Film Independent’s Project Involve, and the Tomorrow’s Filmmakers Today Fellowship with the Hola Mexico Film Festival.
Beyond narrative work, Méndez has built an impressive commercial portfolio with clients including Google, Clorox, and Herdez. She recently made her directorial debut with an animated McDonald’s commercial.
A proud member of ICG Local 600, Méndez works internationally and continues to bring her unique vision and voice to projects across narrative, documentary, and commercial spaces.