LITTLE DAUGHTER - A debut feature film about food, family, and the weight of perfection.

Little Daughter is an upcoming coming-of-age feature film by Alexia Xin-Xin Towle, starring Rosalind Chao (3 Body Problem on Netflix, Joy Luck Club) and Oona Yaffe (Brothers on Apple TV). This film tells the story of a teenage ballerina whose struggle with an eating disorder causes a rift with her Chinese mother and ailing grandmother, whose expressions of love through food become a source of tension.

Help Us Reach Our Goal Before January

A long time in the making, Little Daughter is set to start production in January 2027. We have so far secured 30% of our budget and need your help in getting us to the finish line. Your contribution will go towards compensating our crew of young, diverse filmmakers for their hard work, as well towards production costs such as locations, equipment, and design.

All donations are 100% tax-deductible through the Philadelphia Asian American Film Foundation. Corporate matching is available through Benevity.

Watch our sizzle!

Alexia and the Little Daughter team, including actress Oona Yaffe, did a narrative camera test at a dance studio in Beacon, New York. The talented dancers of the Ballet Arts Studio contributed their craft as we explored shooting with 35mm and 16mm Kodak film. Together with footage from the original short made in 2023, we have put together a sizzle trailer that you can watch below.

SYNOPSIS

Elise, a teenage ballerina living an idyllic suburban life, is pushed toward an eating disorder under the relentless pressure of her dance company's director, Ms. Anna. As Elise spirals deeper into her struggle, her Chinese single mother, Olivia, and grandmother, Mei-Yi, struggle to understand the battle she is fighting, expressing their love in the only way they know how: through food. Meanwhile, Elise watches her best friend, Avery, rise through the ranks to dance the lead in Coppélia, fueling her own insecurities, jealousy, and growing isolation. As Mei-Yi's health declines, Elise's relationship with her body deteriorates, and Olivia attempts to take care of them both, mother and daughter are forced to confront the fractures in their relationship and the sacrifices that have shaped them both.

DIRECTOR’S NOTE

We're living through an era of Ozempic, where women's bodies are shrinking at an alarming rate. Celebrities who were already thin have become dangerously skeletal, harkening back to the 90s and 2000s heroin chic era. As a teenager, I struggled with my body and eating because of what I saw on my phone and what was instilled in me as a ballerina. Teenagers now are constantly bombarded with dangerous body standards with the increasing rise in social media. My story, which I wrote originally in 2021 before this new trend in thinness, only seems to be getting more and more relevant.

But I was lucky - my mother never let that struggle define my worth, despite our cultural and generational differences. Like many immigrant families, food is how my family says what words can't. But when I was struggling most, that love became hard to accept. That tension between food as an act of love and the pressures that turn girls against their own bodies is the heart of Little Daughter. This film is a dedication to immigrant families who go above and beyond for their children, and to girls who don't feel at home in their own bodies. It is about growing up within yourself, your family, and your world: about saying goodbye, and about coming home to a warm meal.

Alexia Towle, writer/director

STARRING

Oona Yaffe as Elise, our protagonist. Oona Yaffe stars in the Apple TV series Brothers alongside Matthew McConaughey and Woody Harrelson, and is currently a student at Harvard University.

Rosalind Chao as Olivia, Elise's mother. Rosalind Chao has had a long and prolific career starring in Joy Luck Club, 3 Body Problem, Mulan, Star Trek, and Freaky Friday.

THE TEAM

Writer / Director

Alexia Xin-Xin Towle is a biracial Chinese-American filmmaker based in Brooklyn, New York. In 2023, she graduated from New York University studying Film and Television at Tisch School of the Arts. Her background in fine arts and art history inspires her filmmaking practice. She has interned at the talent agency Manage-ment®, worked in production design and as an Assistant Director, and directed documentaries for the international NGO WaterAid® used for advocacy on Capitol Hill. Her passion for storytelling and meaningful representation drives every project she takes on. (alexiatowle.com)

Producers

Alan He: A NY-based writer, director, and producer with years of experience across narrative, commercial, and music-video work. Alan's projects have screened at the San Diego International Film Festival and the Boston and Philadelphia Asian American Film Festivals and won an NFFTY audience award and first place at First Run Film Festival.

Makayla Leilua: Makayla produces across multiple mediums while serving as Executive Assistant to the President of Non-Scripted Content & Fashion at WME. She was previously EA to Academy Award–winning directors Sean and Andrea Nix Fine at Change Content, where she helped manage Screen It Forward, an impact campaign for the A24 film The Sixth.

Oona Yaffe (Lead/Producer): Oona Yaffe stars in the Apple TV series Brothers alongside Matthew McConaughey and Woody Harrelson, and is currently a student at Harvard University, studying Philosophy and English. She is based between Los Angeles and New York. She previously acted in ‘Before You Know It’ by Hannah Utt, which premiered at Sundance, as well as ‘Normal With A Capital N’ by Aiko Lozar, which is beginning its festival run this year. She previously produced the short film ‘Is That A Mirage?’ by Grace Shi.

Nicholas Hutchison: A New York–based writer and producer working across film, television, and digital media. He is the producer and writer-director of BANKMAN, an upcoming musical comedy about Sam Bankman-Fried. A graduate of Harvard College, he was a writer for the Harvard Lampoon and won Harvard’s Hoopes Prize for his economics thesis on bias in movie reviews.

Director of Photography

Connor Keep is a New York–based cinematographer working primarily on 16mm and 35mm. In addition to shooting narrative features and shorts, his credits include music videos for MJ Lenderman, Slow Pulp, Been Stellar, Chanel Beads, Greg Mendez, and TAGABOW. He has also contributed to promotional spots for both Kodak and Broadway. He is the owner-operator of an Aaton XTR 16mm camera and an avid supporter of independent film in New York City. (https://connorkeep.com/)

Composer

John Michael Keville is a filmmaker and musician who has worked closely with Alexia Towle and Connor Keep for several years. Most recently he composed the score of the independent feature film Concessions directed by Mas Bouzidi and starring Michael Madsen. His work as a director and as a composer have premiered at numerous festivals including the Edinburgh International Film Festival, Downtown Film Festival, and New/Next.

Thank You

Thank you for reading. In this time of AI, real human stories are more important than ever. By supporting us, you are supporting a community of young, diverse artists who want to tell meaningful stories that have yet to be told. We are dedicated to showing the beautiful way that families learn to love each other when someone is struggling with their mental health, which is more important and relevant than ever before.

If you know someone who might be connected to our story, or is interested in the arts, please share this page. With love, the Little Daughter team