'Heart Candies Taste Like Chalk' emphasizes the bitter truth of homophobia

Rithika Vighne (left), Lexi Berganio (middle) and Aiko Lozar (right), all freshmen at Chapman, begin their pre-production work for their short film 'Heart Candies Taste Like Chalk.' EMILY PARIS, Staff Photographer

The complexities of falling in love could be described as a chocolate lava cake: ooey and gooey on the inside with a delightfully warm exterior. 

But finding the perfect lava cake, much like the perfect relationship, can be a challenge. What if the molten center cools and lacks its signature fudgy nucleus? What if the cake exterior is hard enough to break teeth? 

Rithika Vighne (left), Lexi Berganio (middle) and Aiko Lozar (right) show their love for diversity and inclusion in the film industry in their short film 'Heart Candies Taste Like Chalk.' EMILY PARIS, Staff Photographer

The struggle to find the perfect dessert parallels the frustration of finding love — the hurdles of which are depicted in the short film "Heart Candies Taste Like Chalk," set to release sometime in May. The film uses the popular Valentine's Day candy to symbolize the deceiving nature of love: while the idea of romance sounds like pure bliss, the reality is as jarring as nails on a chalkboard.

"I just randomly said it; Aiko (the director) was like, 'We should do something about heart candies,' and I said, 'Ew, no they taste like chalk,'" explained associate producer Rithika Vighne, a freshman film production major, when describing the origins of the short film’s title. "And then we're like, 'Oh, that makes sense.' Because it's like a positive with heart candies — something cute on the outside — but then you bite into it, and it's just disgusting."

Led by a team of student filmmakers who are striving to emphasize diversity in the industry, the short film also serves to raise awareness of the homophobia that persists in modern day. The storyline focuses on two high school girls —Roxanne and Charlotte — who begin to develop a romantic relationship in secret due to their bond being threatened by Charlotte's homophobic parents. 

Members of the production team for 'Heart Candies Taste Like Chalk' design custom cupcakes to fundraise for their short film. Photo courtesy of Rithika Vighne

Since the story is based off of Vighne's real-life high school experience, she said it will be difficult for her to see the events of the film played out on screen. Nevertheless, she said the message of highlighting underrepresented stories, both on and off screen, is important for the community to hear. 

"We had to delete text messages every single night and meet up only at school," Vighne said. "And that really put a strain on our relationship because we had to make so many difficult choices. I want to really express to people, both how hard it is and why it's important to not have your entire identity questioned by homophobia and just the negative parts of religion."

Not only does this LGBTQIA+ relationship on-screen promote inclusion, but director and freshman film production major Aiko Lozar told The Panther the off-screen crew matters as well — since they are the ones creating and molding these stories for the big screen. 

"We wanted to take our time with it and compile a crew of people that we really feel like represents a diverse spectrum of gender and sexuality just to represent the film itself," Lozar said. "We kind of paused and took our time with creating a crew of people that we really thought represented our mission." 

Even though the story is connected personally to Vighne, Lozar was the one to write the script after they both shared their life stories to one another last semester. While the idea of working professionally with a friend poses it's challenges, Vighne said that their chemistry could blossom into a bond similar to that of other filmmaker duos.

“Heart Candies Taste Like Chalk,” set to release in May, connects the deceiving nature of love to the popular Valentine's Day candy. Photo courtesy of Adi Takei

"When you graduate, there's like those pairs where, ”This director always works with the cinematographer,’" Vighne said. "The way (Lozar and I) work together just flows so well that we could just go and make everything together. (We’d) make it work, grow together, learn together and make all those mistakes together. I just feel like (our) bond was kind of just meant to last." 

While the film is only in pre-production right now, the crew plans to start filming on location in Carlsbad and Newport in April. Since the film is an outside-of-school project, executive producer Lexi Berganio, a freshman creative producing major, said fundraising through custom cupcakes was the best option to accumulate money for the project. 

"(The production team) gave (people who preordered) the option to customize the cupcakes," Berganio said. "One of the most popular designs people wanted was the words 'fuck me' on top.”

As for what constitutes the film visually, Lozar said she is looking forward to physicalizing the emotional separation of these two characters in the context of Valentine's Day. 

"In the second scene in the script, the two main characters have very, very contrasting wants," Lozar said. "They have an overlapping line. The relationship is falling apart, but this whole hallway is decorated with Valentine's Day grams and posters, and there's roses and all this stuff. I really enjoy that dichotomy in their performance, where they kind of noticed that there's this crack in the relationship, but they're surrounded by all this love-related content."

With Zoom rehearsals in full swing and a production crew ready to say “action,” Lozar said she hopes the audience soaks in every moment of this love story while also accepting the message of diversity being a capstone to creating more relatable and resonant stories. 

"I want (viewers) to be able to watch this and basically fall in love with the characters, enjoy the art that we've all made and watch this film and say, 'That is so relatable, that is so something that happens, that is something that I resonate with,'" Lozar said. "I would say that's even more paramount than getting this PSA message across. I would love for people to be able to watch it and just feel like they've been heard or like their experience has been spoken."

For more updates on the production process of the film, visit the Instagram page for "Heart Candies Taste Like Chalk."