My Baby Is a Bike Helmet (2018)

Mary-Anne had a plan. Marry the love of her life. Get pregnant. Quit waiting tables. But, as some wise person once said, "Fate doesn't care about your plans." Neither did Mary-Anne's ovaries. Mary-Anne wants, more than anything, to be a mother but she can't get pregnant. She has an amazing husband (Josh) and a good life, yet it all feels incomplete. Each day she is reminded of the void in her life as she begrudgingly heads to work at "31 Jams," a boutique restaurant with a quirky staff. One particular day, after another negative pregnancy test, Mary-Anne's coworker (Roxanne), a self-proclaimed clairvoyant, misreads her cosmic energy and announces to the entire restaurant that Mary-Anne is expecting. Everyone bursts into celebration and she allows herself to be whisked away into the excitement without telling them the truth. Each day she promises herself that she will end the charade, but as Mary-Anne experiences the joys of being treated as if "with child" the lie becomes incrementally harder to admit. She transitions from innocently stuffing her bra to full-blown Macgyver-esque construction of fake bellies. The pressure continues to mount as Mary-Anne struggles to balance her double life- pregnant waitress at work/childless wife at home- all the while looking for an escape as she gets closer and closer to her imaginary due date. My Baby is a Bike Helmet is a short film integrating classic filmmaking, sketched art, comedy and musical performance to explore the delicate balance between desire and obsession.