“I’m touched every time I see it,” said Traci Dinwiddie, the lead actress of Susan Cohen’s short film “Open Your Eyes.” “Open Your Eyes” was one of the Faithful John’s Shorts of the Cucalorus Film Festival Nov. 12 at Thalian Hall.

Cohen was selected for the American Film Institute’s directing workshop for female filmmakers. The program is quite extraordinary and the only of its kind. The workshop accepts eight arts professional females every year and gives them a crash course in directing, then sends them on their way with a year to make a movie. This workshop was created to help support female filmmakers and eventually increase the percent of female filmmakers.

The opening scene to the film immediately gets a reaction from the crowd. The camera pans around a bridal shower, while only focusing on the women’s breasts.

“Men always start to laugh,” Cohen said. They think the film is going to be of a less serious subject than it really is. “Open Your Eyes” is a fictional short film which focuses on a single woman’s battle with breast cancer.

Because the film shows the actual procedure of the mammogram being done to Julia, Dinwiddie’s character, Cohen commented that during production she was fortunate enough to have many favors reigned in. A local Los Angeles hospital actually brought their staff in an hour early one morning in order for Cohen’s crew to shoot the single scene in which Julia receives her mammogram. The scene was essential for the film, due to it perfectly portraying the awkwardness and humility of the procedure.

At the bridal shower, Julia encounters the bride’s sister, Kat, a blunt and frank character. Kat was inspired by Cohen’s very own best friend, who was also an investor in the film. Kat is the inspiration Julia needs in order to be accepting of her illness. The matter-of-fact attitude Kat brings into the small bathroom encounter she and Julia share in the fifteen minutes film surges Julia out of her brooding rut. This eventually leads to Julia becoming more accepting of herself and the fact that losing a breast does not effect her sexuality.

Cohen comments that the main point of making this film was because our “culture perpetuates that women [should] have this obsession with our bodies.” One out of six women is diagnosed with breast cancer. This leaves women to choose their breast or their life. “When something that society has deemed part of our sexuality is taken away, how do we then define ourselves?” Cohen said.

So far the film has been well received by audiences; surprisingly, men often approach Cohen telling her they were able to identify with the film. Cohen feels that the film breaks down those taboo barriers surrounding breast cancer.

“Open Your Eyes” has been screened in several other festivals in the past six months, including the AFI festival and the Palm Springs ShortFest. It has also won the AFI Jean Picker Firstenberg Award of Excellence and The Alexis Award for Most Promising Student Filmmaker. The film is planning to be screened at BreastFest, the first breast cancer film festival in Toronto.

Cohen was impressed and touched by the enthusiasm of the people in attendance of the screening. While screenings at other film festivals around the country were not always packed, Cohen was surprised when the Cucalorus screening was sold out. Cohen described Cucalorus as an “experience for the filmmakers.”

Cohen has several projects she is working on now, one being producing a TV series, two ideas for feature films. She plans to step out of the drama genre to write a romantic comedy feature film screenplay.