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The 2026 Sarasota Film Festival brought an assortment of varied and powerful stories to the Gulf Coast. One such was the Narrative Feature Competition winner, Charliebird. Directed by Libby Ewing, Charliebird follows Al (Samantha Stuart), a music therapist at a children’s hospital in Texas, who begins to work with a troubled young patient, Charlie (Gabriela Ochoa Perez).

“She meets this young patient who is on the cusp of womanhood, 17 turning 18 years old,” says Ewing. “They bond very quickly, but their relationship confronts the music therapist with some of her own past trauma. It’s a story about a healer that needs to heal.”

Ewing was inspired to direct Charliebird, her feature film directorial debut, in large part due to her relationship with Stuart, who wrote the film. Ewing and Stuart had met through acting classes in Los Angeles—during a women’s writing collective Ewing hosted throughout the pandemic, Stuart pitched the idea of Charliebird to the group. “I’d never seen music therapy portrayed on screen before,” attests Ewing. “She asked me to direct this and I felt like I had to—I was very protective over the development of this story. We filmed in the Galveston/Houston area in Texas in July 2024 and Hurricane Beryl hit the day before our first day of shooting.”

The hot, humid filming conditions lent themselves tonally to the themes of Charliebird. “The story is quite intimate. It’s confronting. It’s a quieter film, but it lends itself to that hot, sticky, saturated Texas feeling,” says Ewing. “The themes of the film are not comfortable, so to me, the weather was a bit of a gift that we kept using.”

Prior to filming, Ewing wasn’t familiar with music therapy or how it can be essential in helping patients. Through the development of Stuart’s script, however, Ewing began to understand the healing modalities of the practice. “Music is such a powerful tool for healing and science supports that art heals on a cellular level,” says Ewing. “Yet we don’t focus on that in Western medicine. I was able to shadow some creative arts therapists, and see examples of their work, such as playing music when patients are going into and coming out of surgery.”

Charliebird is available to rent or buy on platforms such as Apple TV, Prime Video, Google Play and Fandango at Home.

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