Set against the backdrop of 1979, Ali Marsh’s short film Pittsburgh is a coming-of-age story about a little girl who discovers that the adults in her life aren’t nearly as reliable as she needs them to be. What starts as a routine weekend visitation with Dad turns into a night that forces her to grow up fast.
Nine-year-old Mints (Delaney Quinn) loves her needy, divorced dad, Lioyd (Michael Esper), even if spending the weekend with him is a lot to handle. When Lioyd lets one rip in the car, Mints demands to be let out, and the two end up sharing a quiet moment together. Lioyd, still raw from the split, can’t help but wallow in the idea that his ex-wife has moved on. Time is running out for the duo, as they have to get to the airport fast or Mom is going to “go ballistic,” and just like that, the visit is over.
Mints boards the plane alone as an unaccompanied minor and quickly takes comfort in the friendly woman seated next to her—a no-nonsense grandmother figure named Gogo (Annie Golden), and she has candy. Mid-flight, a storm approaches, and the plane is diverted. Now, Mints is forced to stay with the lead stewardess, Leslie (Nadia Quinn), for the night. Leslie would rather hang out at the bar than babysit Mints.
Mints listens intently during a tender moment with her dad in Pittsburgh (2026).
“What starts as a routine weekend visitation with Dad turns into a night that forces [Mints] to grow up fast.”
Pittsburgh is the story of a first-time director, Ali Marsh. According to Marsh, the 1979 setting is very much by design. Marsh wants viewers to remember a time when “parenting” wasn’t even a verb yet—when kids were largely left to figure things out on their own, for better or worse. At its core, she wants the audience to sit with that uncomfortable but oddly liberating moment every child eventually faces: the realization that the grown-ups in the room don’t actually have it together, and that sometimes the kid in the room sees things more clearly than anyone else.
Having been a kid in 1979 myself, I remember playing in the street, riding my bike to the comic shop, and hanging out at arcades, and my parents didn’t have a clue where I was. As long as I showed up for dinner, I was good. Pittsburgh points out how different things were decades ago and how, as parents, not everything has really changed.
Filmmaker Marsh tells a thoughtful tale, taking us to the past and making the moments feel real, while also recreating 1970s America, which is no simple task for any filmmaker, let alone a first-time director. We are transported to a simpler time, and it feels very real.
Pittsburgh is a small film that carries real emotional weight, and it marks Ali Marsh as a filmmaker worth watching. Sometimes, sixteen minutes is all you need to say something that sticks.
"…the adults in her life aren't nearly as reliable as she needs them to be."
