ShortFest 2024: Pesky telemarketer, radio host go head-to-head in new Patti Harrison film

Before Sandy Honig was writing, directing and acting in short- and feature-length films, she was a door-to-door canvasser in New York City, a job that would eventually inspire her short film "Caller Number Nine!"

She recalled one winter day in particular when it was so cold that she had to make phone calls to people about hydrofracking.

"I said, 'I can't do this.' People get so mad, they just hang up, it's so frustrating," Honig said in a recent interview. "Even with door-to-door canvassing, it's really frustrating. You can spend four hours knocking on doors and not even speak to a single person if people aren't home or if they just don't want to talk to you."

The experience wasn't ideal, but it's nowhere near as bad as the situation a telemarketer finds himself in in "Caller Number Nine!" The short film, starring Patti Harrison ("Together Together," "The Lost City") and Freddie Meredith ("Such Brave Girls"), pins a telemarketer with anger issues against an unhinged radio host when he accidentally wins a prize on her show.

"Caller Number Nine!" is one of 310 films part of the 30th annual Palm Springs International ShortFest, taking place June 18-24. The film will screen at 8 p.m. Friday, June 21, at Regal Palm Springs as part of the "Late Night" program.

It's Honig's second year in a row attending ShortFest after screening "Pennies from Heaven" in 2023, a short which she directed, wrote and starred in with Annabel and Sabina Meschke. Honig has done plenty in her career so far, working as a photographer before moving into the comedy sphere. When the television series "Three Busy Debras" came about in 2020, she got to wear the actor, director, writer and producer hats all at once. Directing ended up being a "natural fit" for her, she said, as it combined photography and comedy into one job.

In her latest film, a salesman (Meredith) can't catch a break as people constantly hang up on him while trying to sell protein powder. But he's not one to hold his emotions back: He screams, calls people idiots and forcefully slams his phone down after he hears a dial tone. Just when his day couldn't get any worse, he calls up his next phone number only to discover he's lucky caller number nine on Maria's (Harrison) radio show. When he expresses disappointment in his prize, these two unhinged personalities go head-to-head, exchanging some hilarious and hurtful digs at each other.

A lot of movie magic went into bringing "Caller Number Nine!" alive. Honig said the team found an empty office building in London to shoot the film, and it was up to Production Designer Violette De Laet to bring to life the telemarketer's office space and Maria's home/radio show office.

"It was insane what Violette did. She put up wallpaper, she brought in all that furniture, she and I stayed all night placing things to make it look kind of like a messy, hoarder's apartment," Honig said, referencing Maria's setup. "We had to blackout all the windows too because there were bars on the windows and you could see dumpsters in the back."

Filming, also, required some neat tricks. Harrison and Meredith's characters aren't in the same space in the film, and while they were reading their lines opposite each other, Honig positioned them away from each other's eyeline to essentially mimic an actual phone call. It was also a collaborative process with her actors, she said. As they were reading through the script, Meredith would note which words or phrases wouldn't be uttered by a Brit, and Harrison would find ways to make her lines sound more natural, even improvising at times.

Honig said she "loved working" with her two leads. She and Harrison have known each other for nearly 10 years and have worked in comedy together previously. Honig met Meredith, a trained theater actor and comedian, more recently, and was impressed by his range. It was even more exciting to see on set.

"His character takes himself so seriously, and it was so amazing to watch him. It's an eight-page scene that plays all the way through and ... I've never seen anyone perform in that way where he really just would do the entire take all the way through, and even if he messed up a line, he would make it part of the performance, which I think is the theater training," Honig said.

If you go

What: "Caller Number Nine!" at the 30th annual Palm Springs International ShortFest

When: 8 p.m. Friday, June 21

Where: Regal Palm Springs, 789 E. Tahquitz Canyon Way, Palm Springs

Cost: $15 for general admission, $12 for Film Society members

More info: www.psfilmfest.org/shortfest-2024

Ema Sasic covers entertainment and health in the Coachella Valley. Reach her at [email protected] or on Twitter @ema_sasic.

This article originally appeared on Palm Springs Desert Sun: Patti Harrison stars in new Sandy Honig film at Palm Springs ShortFest