By Etan Vlessing. Canada Bureau Chief. Canadian director Emma Seligman says a dalliance while in film school at New York University led her to writing and directing Shiva Baby , about a young bisexual woman juggling lox bagels, a sugar daddy, an ex-girlfriend and nagging parents during a frantic family shiva, or post-funeral service.
A physical screening will be held at Bell Lightbox on Sept. So, aiming to make a movie about what she knew, Seligman penned a script set in a Jewish community like her own in Toronto, and about sugar babies, or young women who walk a fine line between dating men for money and being sex workers. In Shiva Baby, Danielle, played by stand-up comic Rachel Sennott, attends a shiva with her parents, only to find that her sugar daddy Max Danny Deferrari has crashed the party.
Seligman is more forgiving, however, towards Danielle as a sugar baby in search of sexual empowerment. Sign up for THR news straight to your inbox every day. September 14, pm. Related Stories. All Rights Reserved. Close the menu The Hollywood Reporter homepage.
