Help Us Bring "Strawberry Milkshake" to Life!

“Strawberry Milkshake is a love letter to women of color encouraging them to prioritize joy in the various forms it can be embodied, whether that’s through friendship, romantic relationships, or fulfilling dreams. Women of color need to remember to make space for joy while also being determined, ambitious, and passionate hard workers.”

- Jillian Green, Director

Before the beautiful blend of Strawberry Milkshake, there was Jillian, a young girl, searching for representation in the media and finding a lack. This gap inspired her filmmaking career and vision for Strawberry Milkshake. To her, “‘Strawberry Milkshake’s’ main impact is representation. It’s a simple, but fun, silly, heartwarming, and relatable story that happens to feature and highlight women of color. This isn’t something that happens often in films where women of color stories are showcased in a simple and fun-loving manner. If we do get that representation, it is usually stories about hardship and perseverance, which are integral to the women of color experience but are not the full picture.”

Let us paint the full picture: Women of Color are not a monolith - their emotions are as diverse as their experiences and often, mainstream film does not do their joy and jubilation justice. Enter Strawberry Milkshake.

Calista Cardenas, writer of Strawberry Milkshake shares a similar sentiment to Jillian. She says, “Growing up, I had very little representation in the media. As I got older and my passion for filmmaking grew, I learned that the lack of representation wasn’t just on the screen, but behind the screen as well. It’s hard growing up without representation and even now there are few filmmakers that I can look up to who look like me. In the beginning, it was frustrating and discouraging, but now, it’s motivating.”

“As a woman of color, I want to create stories and films that represent the Latinx community and all people of color. I want to give young Latinas and girls of color the representation that I never had.”

- Calista Cardenas, Writer

Our creative work serves as a reminder that we exist. Our perspectives and our narratives matter and deserve to be well-represented. Strawberry Milkshake is a part of that representation - joy through the insufferable and humor through the impossible.

“This film is so special because of the creative minds behind it. Calista, the writer, gave us a beautiful script about womanhood and dating standards, and Jillian, the director, has made it a story about women of color. It is a story about sisterhood and acceptance, and I hope that it will touch the minds and hearts of a lot of women.”

- Arianna Breyer, Producer

If you’ve ever been accused of being a workaholic, then this film is for you. If you are learning to balance ambition and self-care, then this film is for you. If you believe that platonic love is just as fulfilling as romantic love, then this film is for you. If you’ve ever had a dream so sweet that you have no choice but to create it and share it, we see you – and this is your film.

This film is for us – continued proof that young women can and should penetrate the male-dominated field of short-film creation.

We have a dream and a recipe but, to truly do this film justice, we need you. Without the strawberries, a strawberry milkshake is just a milkshake. Without vanilla ice cream, it’s a sorbet! Every ingredient has a role to play – every actor, a part. In the making of Strawberry Milkshake, every single person is vital — and that includes you.

Any amount helps as we combine our dreams, futures, and the lived joy of women of color into the blend of pink perfection that you will know and love as Strawberry Milkshake.