Synopsis

On a road trip with her younger sister, Charlie struggles to hide a secret sex addiction.

Curator’s Note

Director’s bio

Alexandra Qin is an award-winning screenwriter and director based in New York with a background in technology, social justice, and visual and performance art.

She was born and raised across Paris and Hong Kong to a half-French, half-Filipina mother and a Chinese father. She moved to the United States when she was 18 to study Computer Science at New York University.

After a 10+ year career as a software engineer and prison reform activist, Alexandra started writing her first feature screenplay, THIRSTYGIRL, in 2020. Since then, she has been the 2022 Page Awards Grand Prize Winner and a 2022 Nicholl Fellowship Semifinalist. Her first short film, the THIRSTYGIRL proof-of- concept, was selected for Sundance 2024, among many other festivals.

Director’s Note

Though fictional, THIRSTYGIRL is an incredibly personal story.

Sex addiction is a delicate subject. It is generally met with disgust, skepticism, and, at the very least, discomfort. Sex addicts in film are often portrayed as depraved, hopeless people. And usually represented by white characters. With THIRSTYGIRL, I wanted to tell a different kind of story. A nuanced and compassionate portrayal of a sex addict who is an Asian woman. One that challenges stereotypes of Asian women in film. Here, our protagonist, Charlie, is the one sexualizing those around her instead of being sexualized. She's not submissive or innocent. And she's not a sociopath either. She's hurting and this is the solution she's found to her pain.

It was very important to me that my first film be about sex addiction, as this is an addiction that is widely stigmatized and one that I have struggled with myself. My hope with this film is to create more empathy and understanding for sex addiction and addiction in general, and to provide some hope for those of us who are currently struggling with it.

Festival & Awards

Casts

Samantha Ahn (Charlie), Claire Dunn (Nic), David Eves (Tom)

Credits

Writer/Director: Alexandra Qin

Producers: Alexandra Qin, Brooke Goldman

Director of Photography: Fletcher Wolfe

Creative Producer & Editor: Esteban Pedraza

Casting Director: Brooke Goldman

Composer: Chris Thomason

Sound Design: Bobb Barito

Executive Producers: David Goldblum, David Beazley