After she was sent home last spring, Communication and Bienen junior Hannah Lindvall wrote an entire film reflecting on the last few days on campus.

“It’s Not You, It’s Me” takes place the day before college students were sent home, and focuses on a student’s relationship during a pandemic, though it never explicitly states it was the COVID-19 pandemic. She said she wanted a film that could express what people are navigating “without really hitting it on its head directly.”

The film hints to something going wrong in the world, but the main character, Lily, is oblivious to them as her relationship develops.

“That’s a space that a lot of us really were in before the quarantine happened,” Lindvall said. “I couldn’t stop thinking about that last day and how much I didn’t really on some level believe yet that it was all really happening.”

Communication junior Liv Glassman, who played Lily in the film, said Lindvall’s writing really captured the experience of a young woman in college.

“I really identified with (Lily’s character) because I didn’t know what was happening, and not that I didn’t want to take it seriously ― I just didn’t know what was happening yet,” Glassman said.

Lindvall said the film aims to touch on the “anxieties of living through COVID,” as she personally navigated fears around getting her mother sick during quarantine.

While the film focuses on the painful reality of living in a pandemic, people need to take responsibility for their own actions, Lindvall said.

“We all have that kind of responsibility and need to quarantine or not go to parties and be safe, because you never know which decision it was (that got someone else sick),” Lindvall said. “You never know which time you made a mistake that could really risk your family and people who are close to you.”

Communication junior Jay Towns composed the music for the film. His recent single “Green” is the main track of the movie.

Towns said the film was an opportunity to make music that “evokes feeling” and has versatility, in addition to the style of music he makes for himself.

When he writes music, Towns said he sometimes feels pressure to make music that represents him in the moment. This has pushed him to produce music that falls in line with his audience’s expectations. However, scoring this film helped free him from this pressure, he said.

“I was alleviated of (the) need to have the song represent me because (the music) was made to evoke a feeling in this film,” Towns said. “I worked on how do I want people watching to feel, how do I imagine the characters feel about this music and the vibe that it’s going for.”

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