Aisha Evelyna lives between roles in 'Seahorse'

Writer-director-star Aisha Evelyna builds on her 2024 short 'Nola' with 'Seahorse,' expanding the story of the same titular character to feature length. Aisha reflects on the jump from short to feature and her evolving collaboration with Natalie Remplakowski, who co-directed the short and now produces the feature. She shares how they navigated dividing responsibilities as their partnership transformed.

We explore the challenge of balancing roles in front of and behind the camera. Aisha discusses how she reconciles her presence as both director and star, and who makes the final call on whether a take works when those two roles might disagree. She addresses capturing authentic restaurant kitchen atmosphere on a low budget in an era when audiences have become familiar with that world through shows like 'The Bear,' and her deliberate approach to using flashbacks as a storytelling device.

Aisha gets candid about how work-life balance functions when your life and feelings are embedded in the work itself, revealing the complex reality of transforming personal pain into cinema where the boundaries between artist and art dissolve entirely.