Director's Statement

THE STORY
The idea for this movie started out as a challenge I set myself to tell a story with as few words as possible.
Once I had the main character be a gift wrapper, the setting for the story became obvious: Christmas time.
I've always been fascinated by all sorts of human communication and I am a romantic, I believe two people can connect in ways that transcend words and customary forms.
This is how The Gift Wrapper became a Christmas Tale about two people reaching out to each other in a way very few of us do nowadays: using everything BUT words.

THE REHEARSAL PROCESS
None of the actors in the movie are hard of hearing but all of their parts involved either being one or interacting with one, so from the very beginning I wanted to make sure that all of us would explore non-verbal ways of communicating with each other. This is why when the actors first came in for rehearsal, I stuck a note on the door that said: "Welcome to rehearsal. From now on, neither of us is allowed to speak."
It was a great rehearsal!
Later on that day, I had Michelle Banks, a hard of hearing actress I had collaborated with in the past, come and join us. She taught us the lines that needed to be said in sign language as well as many interesting facts about what it's like to be hard of hearing.
The actors asked her questions and interacted with her in their preparation for their roles.
Having Michelle on board as our Technical Adviser was without a doubt an invaluable asset to our project.

MY GIFT TO YOU
From the moment I began conceiving this movie I came to think about it as a gift to whomever would want to see it.
I hope you like it.