Experiencing Interruptions?

ORDER MY STEPS Short Film

After almost 20 years of separation, Peg, an incarcerated woman, meets with her daughter, Dorian through a family reconciliation program. As they try to connect, memory intrudes, reminding them of the addiction, neglect and betrayal that kept them apart all of these years. Will this meeting begin to mend this ruptured family?

  • Augusta Palmer
    Director
    Order My Steps (Short) (post-production) 2015 A is for Aye-Aye: An Abecedarian Adventure (Short) (completed) 2012 Nugatory (Documentary short) 2009 The Hand of Fatima (Documentary) 2007 If You Succeed (Video documentary). THe Memphis Blues Society, documentary, winner of 2021 National Endowment for the Arts Award
  • Kathryn Grant
    Writer
    Winner of the Steinburg/ATCA Award, The Premiere Stages Festival Award, The Kaufman Award, published by Samuel French, Smith & Krauss, Applause Books. Developing a series based on the play THE GOOD COUNSELOR with Sue Robin Pollock and producer, Vicki McCarty and Covington, Int.
  • Eva Minemar
    Producer
    Eva Minemar is an award-winning producer of over 50 plays, one-woman shows, branded content, TV, and film. She is a member of the Actors Studio Director’s Unit and has also conceived and directed the touring women's theatre staple, ‘Angry Jello Bubbles’, which was performed at the United Nations for International Women's Day. Eva is also the Co-founder and Artistic Director of both the LA LUPA Italian Cultural Arts Festival (LA LUPA FEST), and the Artistic Director of The Piano Store Theatre in NYC. There, she continues to fulfill her lifelong desire to provide opportunities and support for women in the theatrical arts, giving women writers a voice and the opportunity to have their work performed worldwide, without the pressure of commercial concerns.
  • Dolores Diaz
    Producer
    Dolores Diaz's philosophy in life is, "if it isn't fun, then don't do it." Hailing from Queens, NY, she started performing at the age of 9 in ballet and musical theater with the Once Upon a Time Theater School. She found her way into sketch comedy with Eva Minemar in Eva's live show, Angry Jellow Bubbles, and had the fantastic opportunity to perform internationally. Dolores decided college might be a lark and attended CUNY Queens College for Media Studies later in life than most. Upon undergrad graduation, she was offered the unique opportunity to assist renowned Media Theorist, Douglas Rushkoff and helped him get the Media and Activism Graduate Program off the ground. In addition, to working on her Master's Degree, Dolores produced the 1st Annual QC Arts Festival: a 3-day celebration of the arts in various mediums throughout the campus. 2018 was also her Co-Producing debut on the SVA Director's Thesis award-winning film, "Sell Your Body," written and directed by Jannelle Yee. Dolores enjoyed producing so much, and she has been working in film ever since. Dolores has been happily married for well over ten years and dedicated everything she does to her mom, husband, step-daughter, and brothers! They inspire and push her to try to be the best she can be and have a fantastic time while livin' the dream!
  • Meg Grant
    Producer
    For 35 years, Meg Grant has worked for Keystone First, Pennsylvania’s largest Medicaid managed care plan in Pennsylvania. As a healthcare executive, Meg is responsible for creating programming to improve health outcomes, address health equity and remove barriers that prevent families from being healthy and self-sufficient. Most recently Meg launched a Wellness Center located in Chester City. She was instrumental in keeping the doors open during the pandemic, and worked with the Delaware County Health Department to turn the Center into a COVID 19 immunization and testing site. Her teams were also responsible for creating resource guides to assist people with finding food and services, developed food and diaper distribution programs, as well as supported the Afghani refugees, in getting goods and services when they arrived in Philadelphia. As part of her work in supporting workforce development, Meg has hosted pardon and expungement clinics and will be launching a culinary arts program, targeted to people unable to navigate other job offers, due to criminal background or other challenges.
  • Carla Brandberg
    Key Cast
    "Peg"
    Gossip Girl, Escape at Dannemora, Orange is the New Black, Mindhunter
  • Project Type:
    Short
  • Runtime:
    18 minutes 12 seconds
  • Completion Date:
    January 31, 2023
  • Production Budget:
    20,000 USD
  • Country of Origin:
    United States
  • Country of Filming:
    United States
  • Language:
    English
  • Shooting Format:
    Digital
  • Aspect Ratio:
    16:9
  • Film Color:
    Color
  • First-time Filmmaker:
    No
  • Student Project:
    No
  • Women Deliver Arts and FIlm Festival
    Kigali
    Rwanda
    July 19, 2023
    World
    Nominated
  • Mystic Film Festival
    Mystic
    United States
    October 21, 2023
    US
    Selection
  • Bread and Roses
    Asbury Park, NJ
    United States
    October 7, 2023
    New Jersey Premiere
    Official Selection
  • Coney Island Film Festival
    Brooklyn, NY
    United States
    May 4, 2024
    Brooklyn
    Selection
  • Sedona Film Festival
    Sedona, AZ
    United States
    March 29, 2024
    Selected
  • Philadelphia Independent Film Festival
    Philadelphia
    United States
    May 9, 2024
    Philadelphia
    Selection
Distribution Information
  • Eva Minemar
Director Biography - Augusta Palmer

Augusta Palmer is a filmmaker, scholar, and educator Her award-winning feature documentary, The Hand of Fatima, was described as "a combination of personal history and glorious music that is deeply compelling" by New York Magazine. Her fiction short, "A is for Aye", screened at festivals from New York to New Zealand, and inspired a series of workshops at the New York Public Library. Her second documentary feature, The Blues Society (forthcoming 2023), is the recipient of a 2021 National Endowment for the Arts grant, a 2021 NYSCA Grant, and a 2022 National Endowment for the Humanities grant. She is an Associate Professor and Chair of the Department of Media and Communication at St. Francis College in Brooklyn, New York.

Add Director Biography
Director Statement

Kathryn Grant's writing in “Order My Steps” captivated me from the first moment I first saw the piece produced as a zoom play in Fall 2020.

Growing up with a mother who suffered from mental illness and an absentee father who struggled with addiction, I can easily relate to Dorian’s pain and withholding of herself. As a mother, I can also relate to Peg’s deep need for connection to her child. These masterfully written characters are deeply flawed - and deeply human.

Creating a visual and dramatic world for these women was an exciting challenge. The world of Dorian and Peg’s past is more open than the confining prison walls and pandemic isolation of the present, yet the possibility for them to act freely and reconnect exists more as much the fractured online space of the present as it does in memory. Honoring Peg’s experience of incarceration is deeply important to me because I’ve been privileged to teach and learn from some amazing formerly incarcerated individuals, men and women who continue to inspire me with both their grit and their compassion.

Exploring the simultaneous impossibility and necessity of deep human connection is a topic that drives me as an artist. The razor’s edge of the moment when Peg and Dorian meet is sharp and painful for both of them, but together they may be able to move past that moment without suppressing or ignoring their own (or each other's) pain.