“So why don’t you just open the door and come out?”

Mandy has been sitting in their boiler closet for a rather long time. The pipes are blisteirng hot, the dust is making their eyes water and they haven’t been on a date in months. And still, they sit. What – or who – could be stopping them from leaving? Sometimes, our mechanisms for self-preservation can be dangerously insidious.

Keeping Watch is the third short film by drag and performance artist Mandy Sweats. Inspired by abusrdist theatre from the likes of Samuel Beckett and Edward Albee, it is a sombre, scary and yet ultimately uplifting depiction of stagnation, resistance and growth.

Created entirley by the artist. Camera used is the Sony A6000.