Céline Roustan

Claudia and Adrian are in a situationship. When Adrian faces health issues, Claudia finds herself unsure of how to qualify herself when trying to visit him in the hospital and begins to wonders if she should even be there at all. In her directorial debut, Relationship to Patient, writer/director/producer Caroline Creaghead – previously featured on S/W as a producer on Matt Porter’s Flex – crafts a deeply touching and sensitive narrative, delivering the perfect combo of emotion and laughter, touching yet funny.

Loosely based on a real experience Creaghead went through, the story stems from the emotional ups and downs of that “undefined close relationship”. Inspired by that, she started writing and penned a feature length screenplay. The personal nature of the material gave her the confidence to make the jump from producer to director and “essentially hire [herself]”. However, developing a feature takes time, with the project evolving after numerous rewrites, but Creaghead knew that by making a short she could showcase “the tone and sensibilities that I envisioned for the feature-length story”. Explaining that the themes that she wanted to focus on were “intimacy, belonging [and] what it means to ‘be with’ someone”, the filmmaker also wanted to explore the notion “that humor shows up as relief, as truth, as integral to being alive”.

“My hope is that this short film not only demonstrates my abilities and style as a director, but also helps me get closer to making a feature length film of the larger story I want to tell.” – director Creaghead

The film’s tone is undeniably charming, striking a balance between drama and comedy, and delivering a delightful dose of awkwardness. “Everyone in the film comes from a comedy background”, Creaghead shared with us, and the humorous element in the film works to bring levity to a more serious context. With the comedy always feeling earnest, instead of a contrived storytelling device, the filmmaker uses her personal experience to bring authenticity to both the screenplay and the directorial approach – especially in the first section of the short, where we are alone with Claudia navigating this unusual situation. 

Edited by Porter, who is also credited as a co-producer, and shot by Patrick Ouziel (who also shot Flex), the film immerses us in Claudia’s confusion. From the way she is framed, the camera movements and the cuts, the image echoes her uncertainty about whether she truly belongs there. At the same time, the photography and the edit also work to enhance the comedic moments of the film, without ever taking away from its dramatic undertone. 

Eleanore Pienta and H. Jon Benjamin star in Relationship to Patient

At this point (I Turn to Jello, Important Police Shit, Plaisir, Young Mom), casting Eleanore Pienta in your film seems like the best way to get it featured on S/W! Once again, she does not disappoint in Creaghead’s short, delivering a striking performance that conveys all the layers and nuances of the screenplay. Her vulnerability, confusion and insecurities make her character so endearing and captivating.

Despite Pienta and H. Jon Benjamin being “the first people [she],  thought of and wanted to play Claudia and Adrian”, the chemistry between them was beyond what Creaghead had expected. With this in mind, it let the director and her cast to turn to improv for the scene the pair share, with a primary direction to “make each other laugh”. In the edit, they structured the scene around the gems they got from this improvisation, which Creaghead says were “key in contrasting the heavy circumstances with the lightness and warmth of this still-new, tender connection”.