Lauren
Gaskill

To Roost

2025

actor/producer/writer

Best Shorts Competition
Winner
Awards of Merit:
Cinematography - Katie Walker
Actress (Leading) - Lauren Gaskill

This is a film about grief.

“To Roost” came together as a collaboration between three filmmakers with very deep ties to each other. Katie and Lauren grew up together in Los Angeles, even collaborating on films together in middle school and high school before Lauren moved to Milford, Connecticut and then Norwalk, Connecticut while teaching Spanish at Fairfield University.

Ironically, Michael grew up in Wilton, Connecticut before attending the Johns Hopkins Film and Media program as an undergraduate before moving on to Los Angeles to complete an MFA in film production at the University of Southern California’s School of Cinematic Arts where he met cinematographer and camera operator Katie Walker.

Katie has been seriously studying photography and cinematography since high school, continuing these pursuits at UCLA and then on to USC’s school of cinematic arts MFA program.

"To Roost" germinated from the collision of Lauren managing the simultaneous crises of a career, motherhood and the ceaseless drive for artistic expression at around the same time that Katie also gave birth to her daughter. After exploring these themes through a number of scripts and short films, Lauren reached out to her long term friends in the hopes of finally collaborating in a more professional setting.

Lauren continues to pursue acting professionally in southern New England and the New York metro area. Michael works mostly in the set lighting and camera departments of many commercials, television and streaming programming and Katie shoots narrative work, commercials and promotional materials for high budget studio productions.

Kamakura, 1956

writer/director

In the orbit of maternal love, a husband accepts an opportunity with unknown consequences. A family portrait memorializes a day that will mark an end and a beginning.

A fictional reimagining of my paternal grandparents meeting in Japan during the Post WWII U.S. Occupation.

My father, animation veteran Andy Gaskill, was raised in Japan until his father’s business dealings forced them to return to the U.S. when my father was a kid.

Their story inspired this short film with Connor Bond, Joseph Strickland, Miwa Gemini and Jarvis Roe, shot by Philey Sanneh with costume design by Shanna Lowe and music by Miwa Gemini.

Indie Short Fest
Nominee
Best Micro Short

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