Bless Ur Heart | Short Film (2026)

Hello! My name is Milan Medley. I am the writer, director, and editor behind Bless Ur Heart. I created this film my freshman year at Pace University because I was fortunate enough to win Pitch Fest and create a short film with the whole Pace Film Club backing me. I feel like that’s not talked about enough. I came here with high school film class experience, told everyone my idea, and it won. I’m so grateful. Now, on to Bless Ur Heart. This short film idea came from me watching the fall semester Pitch Fest at my school and knowing I wanted to pitch the next semester. That night, I went to my dorm and asked my two roommates, Olivia and Adele, what I should make a short film about, and they said I should make it about roommates. I think they were thinking more like, “What’s it like in 1404 of 15 Beekman?” but my mind had the idea to make a film based on my roommates. Hazel and Kitty take inspiration from the personalities of Olivia and Adele. I turned them Southern and punched them up to make them even sillier and ditzier. I’m a girl born and raised in the South, so this was a very fun script to write. My technique is to pretend that no one will ever see this when I’m writing. Just put some bullshit, and if it makes me laugh, it stays. I like whimsy and joy. A couple of movies I used to compare Bless Ur Heart to are "Romy and Michele’s High School Reunion" and "Bottoms". These had two strong but silly female duo leads, and lots of silly and slapstick things would happen in those movies. When it came to filming, we definitely had our ups and downs. I honestly cried a lot. Shout out to my AD Ry Grady for being there for me. You can probaly guess that ive never been a director or been in charge of 20+ people on a film crew. any skits, or music videos ive done, have been super short, and created with my friends. At this time I was just a second-semester freshman giving notes and bossing around people who are juniors and seniors and have worked on many films. I remember that I had a hard convo with my DP, and afterward, I went into the stairwell and Googled how to be a director through tears. I dont know what im doing! I only know jokes! Anyways, as for the directoring thing, no one really knows. There is no formula, you just gotta have a clear vision and your own style. But, good news is, when I was in a good mood lol, this was the most fun set ever. The script is funny, my actors were hilarious, and it was really fun to direct once I put the self-doubt behind me. this film showed me my love for editing. The hustle of having to be the perfect director, advise the set designers, give the actors notes, and all that stuff was alot for me. I learned that im more of a team player, I didnt really have strict rules for how things should go, i was open to ideas and improv, and i think that made me as a director weak. But, with editing, I got to be alone in a dark, quiet room and get to work. I get to see it come together. I can add any last-minute changes or remove stuff that doesn’t work. I loved it. It made me realize that I want my film career focus to be on editing. At the end of the day, we did do a premiere. When the movie premiered, I hated it. I fell into a slump because I had poured my whole life, sweat, tears, blood, and school semester into this project, and it wasn’t perfect. The next day, I volunteered at the Film and Screen Studies Festival here at Pace, further understanding just how “terrible” my film was. Fast-forward to now. All summer, I had been thinking about a director’s cut and a release onto YouTube. I hadn’t released it because I was not proud of it. I didn’t feel like it was my best work. But what I’ve learned is that Bless Ur Heart was the best possible film I could make at the time. And truly, it wasn’t that bad Becoming overly critical of myself made me miss the jokes and sucked the fun out of this project. Every single little issue, I would hone in on and use as proof that I’m not good at this. But I am. I did this. I wrote this, I pitched it, people voted, I won, people believed in the idea, they auditioned and signed up for the crew, I directed, I gave actors notes, I edited, and sure its been a long time coming but now, ive relased it. The first big thing you do will never be perfect, but Bless Ur Heart is pretty damn good. I’m working on a new idea, and it’s better. No shade at all, that’s just how it should be: growth, progress, and change. So here I present Bless Ur Heart in its final form. It’s been re-edited, with a couple of new clips and a couple of things taken out, and this is something I’m proud to put out there. And to Bless Ur Heart, I’m sorry I didn’t believe in you earlier. You’re really funny, and I’m excited for the world to see. Thanks, y’all. Enjoy!