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Currently Playing: BETSY F-CKING ROSS | Omeleto

A woman sews. Elizabeth Griscom has grown up in a Quaker family, and after her sisters' disgrace, her parents look to her to redeem the family name. An apprentice to an upholsterer, she works hard and marries a co-worker at the shop, much to her parents' dismay. Betsy is excellent at her job, even dreaming of owning her own shop one day. But marriage is complicated and the Revolutionary War is underway, pulling Betsy on a more unpredictable path. Directed and written by Kayla Baken, this witty, winkingly suggestive short comedy imagines the story of American legend Betsy Ross, the famed maker of the first American flag. Imbued with the revolutionary spirit in more ways than one, it romps through this well-worn patch of American history, revisioning it with equal parts intelligence and innuendo as it fashions a self-made heroine full of pluck, gumption and guts. It opens with a quick, funny yet pointed scene of the Griscom family, as Betsy watches her sister's disgrace with her strict Quaker parents. Betsy is pressured to be a good Quaker girl, but with her asides to the camera, a wry voiceover and her own inherently intrepid disposition, it's clear she's not one to fit into an acceptable mold. She's not angry or put-upon; she just wants to have her own shop and be captain of her own fate. When she falls in love with John Ross, a fellow apprentice, she seems to have found a partner for her dreams, even if it means being disowned by her family. But John soon proves jealous of Betsy's success, especially when she takes on extra work and becomes well known for the excellence of her "sew jobs," which make for some of the film's funniest jokes. But John's envy of his wife is real, as are the old-fashioned mores that would have Betsy diminish herself to keep the peace as a proper wife. As Betsy, actor Skylar Schock calibrates her performance to balance both the humor and the real emotional stakes of her character: no matter what, she's not interested in making herself small to serve a fragile ego. When fate comes knocking at her door, she must choose between societal dictums and her own independent spirit. Most know how the myth of Betsy Ross unfolds: designing and sewing flags and serving as a symbol for women's contributions to the American Revolution. But BETSY F-CKING ROSS injects levity, wit and a certain punk rock spirit into the telling, with quick, well-paced storytelling and an engagingly modern style. In turns winking and whimsical, it invites us to dust off the received wisdom of a historical figure and makes a case that the drive to independence and autonomy exists well beyond role, identity or context -- it may just be a truth self-evident to any human being. BETSY F-CKING ROSS. Courtesy of Kayla Baken at https://kaylabaken.com.