Synopsis

In an effort to get closure on her past, Alice returns to her high school to pay a surprise visit to her former teacher and lover, Mr. Jacobs. Now grown up and disillusioned with the reality she had been made to believe in, Alice confronts Mr. Jacobs in the classroom where they first met. She demands an apology for his abuse and threatens to come forward with her story. In return, Mr. Jacobs pushes back against Alice's accusations. He draws on their shared connection and reinforces his narrative of the relationship they shared nine years ago. Faced with two versions of the past, Alice is forced to

acknowledge her own conflicting motivations and desires that brought her back to Mr. Jacobs in the first place.

Director's Statement

When I was 17, I was groomed into a sexual relationship by my favorite teacher. At the time,

it felt like love. Now, after more than a decade of questioning myself, my judgment, and my

worth, I question the man I thought I knew. How could he (and the many others like him) do

those things to a child? How did he rationalize his actions, and what would happen if I ran

into him now? He was my teacher, my lover, my mentor, my friend, and my abuser. If I saw

him again, who would I see looking back at me?

If I saw him again, would he still get to decide our story?

DELIBERATE is my fantasy of a rematch between me and my abuser that will never happen,

and that I would never win. It is a story about the fight for control, the illusion of power, and

the desperate need to escape one’s demons. It challenges viewers to consider questions

like the ones I had to navigate as a survivor of abuse:

• What can you trust when you can’t trust yourself?

• Is control an illusion? What is the cost of believing in that illusion?

• What is justice?

Ultimately, the film offers no easy answers. Instead, DELIBERATE compels the audience to

consider these questions long after the credits roll. Through placing the audience in the

perspective of a survivor, DELIBERATE shows that the only way to move on from a traumatic

past is to choose to leave it behind you.

Crew & Cast

Marta Roncada (Director, Writer, Producer) is an award-winning writer/director and founder of the production company WHOLE PICTURES. Brazilian, Italian, and first-generation American, Marta gravitates to stories centered around female characters facing imbalanced power dynamics. Credits include DELIBERATE (Dances With Films), STAGES (Outshine Festivals), and the upcoming THE GOOD, THE BAD, AND THE BEAUTY. 

Raphael Gindre (Producer) started as an aerospace engineer before moving to contemporary art, music, and finally films. Raphael shares his time between Paris and Los Angeles with a production company on each side to foster and produce talent with a unique voice. His feature film credits include "Funny Birds" (2024), "Divinity" (Sundance 2023), and "Anywhere With You" (Cannes 2018). 

Dan Finlayson (Cinematographer) is a cinematographer from Boston, MA, now residing in (much warmer) Los Angeles, CA. His work has been twice featured at Tribeca as well as the Palm Springs International Shortfest. 

Taylor Page (Composer) is a composer based in Los Angeles, CA. Most recently she co-scored the BAFTA-nominated film, Beyond Utopia, as well as DreamWorks Animation’s The Bad Guys: Haunted Heist. As an additional composer, Taylor has had the opportunity to write on many projects including Roadside Attractions’ Ri Ra , The Right Stu on Disney +, The Handmaid’s Tale on Hulu, Netflix’s The Chilling Adventures of Sabrina, Ivy and Bean on Netflix, Buzzfeed’s 1UP, and The Independent. 

Joe Siebert (Editor) t is a film editor living in Northeast, Ohio. He works in both narrative and documentary and has also directed and edited his own films, including The Sax Man, which screened at over a dozen film festivals across the US, winning multiple awards, including Best Ohio Film at the 2014 Cleveland International Film Festival. 

Behind the Scenes