Almost Home: A Film by Flash the abyss
Credits:
Starring: Alyssa Aparicio
Director: Erik “Talltree” Butts
Creative Director: Alyssa Aparicio
Makeup Artist: Lily Zwang
About
Almost Home is film about the journey we embark on only to return to the truth we start from. The story is an autobiography of professional dancer, Alyssa Aparicio, on her path to embracing the Goddess within and shedding the weight of industry expectations.
She knew what she was meant for all along. One of her earliest memories, a recurring daydream of herself dancing through the clouds over her native Bronx sky. She dreamed of being a star, an artist, exploring the world. Her desires took her into the realm of modeling at a very young age before she segwayed back to her first passion of dance. Immersed in these respective industries and big cities of New York and Los Angeles, she soon became disenchanted by the feeling that her spirit was diminishing more and more with every pound upon the pavement and heartless casting call. She had become estranged from her true nature and found herself on the brink of breakdown trying to make ends meet.
From the depths of this despair came a profound period of breakthrough as she went on a spiritual exploration that reunited her with what she refers to as her Highest Self, representing a limitless, empowered, divinely inspired version of herself.
We find the protagonist at the intersection of breaking point and entry point into owning the depths of her potential. At the borderline of who she refused to remain and who she knew she had always been.
This film was created at the blossoming of new love between the dancer and director, Erik “Talltree” Butts. It seems destined that his talent for painting otherworldly visions would be the vessel for bringing her ethereal dream to life.
Director’s Statement
Almost Home is one of my proudest creations yet. It holds a personal space in my heart because it helped bring myself and my partner together. We met at an unlikely place for each of us to be— a club in Hollywood. Like so many Angelenos do, we decided to stay in touch to potentially work on something together in the future. We both had a desire to create something that expressed our story at the time. We had each been living in LA for 3 years and feeling the exhaustion of the grind, slowly losing the passion for creation, feeling the weight of the city life and the responsibilities that come with it. We poured this sentiment into Almost Home which brought free flowing expression back into our lives and also sparked the love which continues to hold us together.
See more of Erik “Talltree” Butts work here.
Behind the Scenes
See more of Flash the Abyss’ work here.
Follow them on IG: @Flash_the_Abyss.
Stay tuned for their next film, a documentary about women in modern Flamenco dance. Receive email updates here.
