June 10

Day 10

Wednesday brought us another live action short film from 2025 for the June Swoon 5. This one I found on a list of the best short films of 2025 and it sounded the most interesting of the list. It was called Dirty Towel and it was a film by Callie Carpinteri.

A mother lectured her young daughter about sex, using the towel as a metaphor. She told her young daughter that having sex was like dirtying a new, clean towel and that you could never get it clean again.

Flash forward about 12 years and the girl, named Charlie, was having her first sexual encounter with a boy named Jack. After having sex, Charlie thought back to the words her mother spoke and had to deal with the feeling of shame.

At just over 12 minutes, Dirty Towel does a good job of displaying the inner shame people feel when they have done something that triggers that emotion. Charlie’s mind played tricks on her as she went through her normal routines and her own opinions were rough. They kept that dirty towel metaphor going throughout the short.

Emma Parks played Charlie and did a lot with the limited time.

The short was a solid film, with both humor and a strong message of self-acceptance.