Chicken Salad, directed by CK Thornton is a testament to the disconnect of The Woman from her Real Self. This film combines authentic spoken poetry and sensational imagery to weave together a story of love, grief, obsession, desire, and ultimately, the return to oneself. We begin with the image of a woman sitting on a kitchen counter. She bangs her foot against the cabinet beneath her. She holds a bowl of beautifully prepared chicken salad. We feel the essence of rumination. The text says, “It’s eating at me” and we see it infects the body. The filmmaker utilizes natural elements to invoke the sensation of what we hear. Food is used as a mirror of desire, obsession, and lust. Images of the woman at a fully set table, head in her bowl. Tears hang from her eyes and drip from the bowl. An ever-pouring stream of affection and affliction entangled in what was left for her.  

 

We venture through our heroine's psyche, which has become “defenseless to parasitic heartbreak”.  Our heroine has fallen into one of the worst traps of womanhood. She has fallen in love. Our heroine seeks understanding within lust, desire, communication from another. The heroine lives in the distortion of her own Divine Feminine. The divine feminine wants to nurture, to empathize, to protect. The divine is taken advantage of, skewed into simple stereotypes.  

“I do what I’ve been predisposed to do. I head to the kitchen. The idea of making chicken salad “just how you like it” is so simple, yet it degrades the true nature of women. Some people want love, only to be met with desire.  

 

Then there is stillness. A rest. Our heroine takes time to herself to grow, to reconnect with herself. Images of flowers enveloping her as she lays. The spectator experiences the season of growth. Our heroine discovers this pain was part of her plan, and she accepts all that comes with it. The only true understanding is the understanding within one’s own soul. Solitude does not have to be lonely. Love does not have to be external.

  

- Sophia Barroso, BFA On-Camera Acting '26 Oklahoma City University​