PETTING ZOO

San Antonio, Texas. Seventeen-year-old Layla’s prayers are answered when she wins a college scholarship. From a low-income family, she has been working full time at a local telemarketing company and it hasn’t stopped her from being at the top of her high school class. Hanging out with her slacker boyfriend Danny and partying with her best friend Melanie round out Layla’s routine. But an unplanned pregnancy changes everything. Giving into family pressure, Layla decides against an abortion, drops her college dreams and moves into her loving Grandma‘s trailer on the edge of town. Layla moves forward confidently with her new daily life as a pregnant teenager, but she’s still anxious about the future. She ends up meeting a new boy – Aaron – different from everyone else, and starts a new job in a diner. Just as things seem to be falling into place again, fate throws another turn. As her social fabric unravels around her, Layla begins to see her environment differently, the first step toward finding herself.

PETTING ZOO is Micah Magee’s first feature. Micah has directed a number of award-winning short films. In 2012, Micah was awarded the German Short Film Lola in Gold (German Academy Award) for HEIMKOMMEN (COMING HOME.) She has received awards from the Oberhausen Film Festival (Germany) and Premieres Plans d'Angers (France). Micah grew up in San Antonio, Texas. From the formative age of 19 to 22, she served as managing and programing director for Cinematexas International Short Film Festival in Austin. She graduated from the University of Texas in Austin with a dual degree in Plan II Honors and Radio-Television-Film. Also active in pirate radio and print journalism, Micah took a Fulbright journalism fellowship from Texas to Berlin, where she studied film directing at the German Film and Television Academy (DFFB). Micah lives with her three children and husband, Danish filmmaker Johan Carlsen, with whom she founded directors' co-op and production company Makrorama.