In the style of an investigative documentary, Emile Is Missing follows trans filmmaker Isobel as she pieces together interviews, webcam footage, security tapes and her own growing suspicions to solve the disappearance of her missing girlfriend Emile. Deep in her digital shadows, Isobel discovers EmileCam; a camsite populated by obsessive fans who had been spying on Emile through her webcam. Are they responsible for her disappearance? Or is it the CCTV cameras which would mysteriously film Emile everywhere she went. Or, as Emile’s own mother suggests, did she disappear under her own volition? As a desperate Isobel reviews her documentary footage, we bear witness to a violent digital collage of what it means to be under surveillance. It is there in the fragmented digital memories of her lost love that Isobel discovers that Emile has been here all along, waiting for her on the other side of the screen.

Screenings

Brunswick Underground Film Festival | 2025 | Melbourne, Australia
St Kilda Film Festival | 2025 | Melbourne, Australia
Revelation Perth International Film Festival | 2025 | Perth, Australia

Cast:
Isobel - Sam Carson
Emile - Stacey Collee
Agatha - Verity Higgins
Ian - Joshua Draffin
Becky - Sophie Bonollo

Crew:
Writer, Director, Producer - Sam Carson
Writer, Director, Director of Photography, Editor - Félix Morreo Zisserman
Producer, 1st AD - Olive Bilic
Production Designer - Char Lee
Composer - William Palazzo
Sound Designer, Boom Operator - Alexandra Barron
Runner - Sophie Bonollo
Sound Recordist - Bea Brozek
1st Assistant Camera - Tan Slayvéhn
Haemish Gordon - Boom Operator
Still Photographer - Casper Plum
Hair and Makeup - Lilly Von Goes
Gaffer - Klari Agar
Graphic Designer - Maddy Bryson
Edit Consultant - Cindy Clarkson
Colourist - Deidre McLelland CSI
Sound Mixer - Lincoln Sharpe
Supervising Producer - Angie Black
Production Supervisor - Annabelle Murphy
Supervising Lecturer - Georgie Harriss
Production Coordinator (Screen) - Katie Bradley
Production Officer (Screen) - Sez Niederer
Post-Production Coordinator - Grayton Hevern

Directors Statement:

Félix: This film came from a lonely place. I was obsessed with this website which would continuously stream YouTube videos with less than 10 views. There was something so intimate and sad about these crummy, compressed videos that no one would ever see. In one of them I saw a girl sitting alone in her bedroom. Then the video glitched out and she just disappeared. Who was she? Did she even exist? There was no way of knowing, but the image stayed with me. This became the premise for Emile is Missing.

Sam: I love how the set up for Emile is actually quite straightforward; we see this girl on a camsite and then she just disappears! It’s when we cut to interviews with the people who knew her and each one of them believes in a really different version of what happened that we start to question things. That tension of multiple realities made the film feel unique; we’re unable to resolve these conflicting perspectives and it creates this sick, dysphoric feeling.

Félix: How very trans.

Sam: For sure, but this isn’t your average trans film and the choice to set the film through the POV of two trans characters happened late in development. I think that expanded our storytelling because we weren’t trying to hit the beats of a stereotypical trans film (i.e. the character comes out, faces discrimination and either ends up empowered or dead). Instead we could play with something more universal; the violence of being watched and the fight for control over your own image. Anyone who’s grown up on the internet knows what that feels like.

Félix: Sounds like a good movie.

Sam: lol