The film started as a commission from Liquid Music and the Cincinnati Symphony. Filmmakers and composers were asked to work together from the start of the project.
“The film and the music [were] being co-created at the same time,” explains Decker. “So it's not a music video, it's not a film set to music, and it's not a score. And we both were going on our creative journeys side by side, which was glorious.”
Decker says that during the creative process, when her kids were ages 1 and 3, she wanted to do a project about motherhood and collaborate with Upward Bound House, an organization that works with women and families who are in transitional housing.
“I worked with five mothers in transitional housing at Upward Bound House to write and act in the film. We all listened to Arooj’s [draft score] together, and you felt the whole room change, the real bristling shift. … We wrote from that song, and danced to that song, and improvised to that song. And so it was really exciting to have that as such an integral part of the writing and scripting process.”
Rise, Again is based on the lives of Michaela Slaninova, Tracy Taylor, Amy Bryan, and Gisselle (who wants to withhold her last name for privacy reasons). They became friends during the making of the project, Decker explains, connecting over crisis moments that led them to housing instability.
“All of these women are living out their own very unique, very individual stories. And there's almost a leaning on each other, of knowing that they've all been through it and survived. The last shot you see [is] a woman, she's pregnant, dropping her baby off for daycare. And then she transforms into two other women on her journey back to her car, where she hides the evidence that her family is sleeping in the car, so she can just go to work.”
Decker adds, “It's profound to get to make this work with these women who are truly heroes. And I think in our conversations around homelessness here in LA, it's really grounding to remember how many people are homeless and have jobs.”
The entire film is a fictionalized narrative based on all of the women’s experiences, Decker says. “We were trying to make one mother that everyone could become together, drawn from different realities. And it was very emotional to shoot the scenes of a mom playing with her son outside of their home, which is their car. And I think it really brought up a lot for them and for all of us, to live with this history, and also be paid as artists now, to get to reinvestigate and explore and share how complex circumstances can be.”
Aftab notes that she empathizes with the women’s feelings of hope, power, and courage. “Those things are all the things that we need. And so that was very aligned with the storytelling and the overall theme I want to take away with these women and their story.”
Aftab is singing in English near the end of the film, and the lyrics include “old friend, I’ll see you again” on repeat. Meanwhile, viewers see women dressed in nursing scrubs — essential workers who are unhoused.
“I actually didn't even really want to be singing in the piece itself. But then I thought it should be something really simple,” Aftab explains. “And so what came to me, and what I had been thinking about, was these connections, and connections that go past celestial bonds and the real timeline that we're on. ... There's a cycle that happens in life, and things are up, and things are down. And what is the reason for hope? And that is oftentimes a friend.”