🎓 From Film School to Filmmaker: The Birth of Boa, Like Woe, and Chrysalis

By Micki Rose

I started from film school with a head full of ideas and a heart full of fire.

I didn’t know exactly where I was headed, but I knew one thing: I needed to tell stories that hit the soul, not just the screen.

Fast forward to now, and I’ve had the incredible (and often surreal) experience of bringing three of my own films to life — LIKE WOE, BOA: My Darling, and Chrysalis.

Each project was more than just a script or a production. They were pieces of me. Pieces of what I’ve survived, observed, inherited, and transformed.

🥀 LIKE WOE: Grief and Ghosts of the Past

My first production I created was Like Woe — a quieter, more intimate piece that explores addiction, grief, and intergenerational trauma.

There’s a line between memory and nightmare, and Like Woe lives in that in-between space. It’s about a man haunted by the past — literally and emotionally — and what happens when trauma is inherited like heirlooms.

• We used symbols like butterfly tattoos to connect it to the same universe as Boa.

• We focused on sensory world-building — what you hear, see, and don’t see.

• And we grounded it in emotional realism.

Like Woe taught me that subtle horror can be just as haunting as jump scares — and sometimes, grief is the real monster.

🎬 Boa: Power, Legacy, and Motherhood

Boa was my second project I jumped into. A neo-noir thriller with women at the center of power, violence, and legacy.

• It’s dark, intimate, and unapologetic.

• It questions the cost of obedience, the complexity of maternal power, and what happens when survival becomes a family business.

Boa, the character, is what happens when a daughter is trained to kill before she learns to feel.

This film taught me how to build tension with minimal dialogue, how to write layered female leads, and how to balance aesthetic with grit. It was also my first time building a story that felt cinematic and theatrical — something that lives in the shadows but moves like poetry.

🦋 Chrysalis: Breaking Silence, Becoming Something New

And then came Chrysalis — the most personal, painful, and powerful project I’ve done so far.

It’s a story about a girl who becomes something else after surviving the unthinkable. Abuse. Silence. Control. And finally, rebirth.

This film is about reclaiming your power — not because someone gave you permission, but because you decided you’re done suffering.

• It demanded emotional bravery on set — from the actors, the crew, and myself.

• We created beauty and horror in the same frame.

• We showed transformation, not through fantasy, but through raw, ugly, gorgeous truth.

Chrysalis is the foundation for the entire universe the other films live in. It’s the trauma that sparked the rebellion. It’s the origin story for the women who stopped following rules and started writing their own.

🎞 What These Films Taught Me

• Film school gives you tools. The real world gives you voice.

• You don’t need a huge budget to make something impactful — just vision, commitment, and a damn good team.

• Storytelling is healing. But healing hurts, and that’s okay.

• Women deserve to be at the center of every genre — thriller, horror, drama, action, whatever we want.

These three films were my way of saying: We’re here. We’re layered. We’re complex. And we’re done being silenced.

🎓 Life After Film School

Leaving film school felt like stepping off a cliff — no net, no map, just intuition. The world outside of structured classes and instructor feedback was daunting. But it was also freeing.

I no longer had to wait for permission. No grades. No rubrics. Just the question: What do you have to say? Graduating film school didn’t mean I had “arrived.” It meant I had the skills — and now, the responsibility — to create art that matters.

I’m still learning. Still growing. Still dreaming bigger.

But now I have proof that it’s possible. That a young Black woman can graduate, pick up the camera, and tell stories no one else is brave enough to tell.

And I’m just getting started.

🎥 Want to watch or support the films?

• Follow @MickiRoseStudio on Instagram

• Stay tuned for festival announcements, streaming links, and behind-the-scenes content

• Share the stories. Share the mission.

Thank you to every classmate, professor, actor, crew member, and supporter who helped me find my voice — and use it.

Let’s keep breaking rules. Let’s keep building worlds. Let’s keep choosing truth.

— Micki Rose 🎬