Sixteen-year-old REESE lives with her father, LEN; pregnant stepmother, SHANA; and six-year-old half-brother, TY. Reese feels isolated and dreams of running away. When Shana goes into labor, Reese is left to babysit Ty. She pushes him away and withdraws to her room. Meanwhile, Ty, who is obsessed with turtles, escapes into a fantasy world where Reese becomes a tortoise and he becomes a sea turtle. 

Hatchlings explores the rippling effects of America’s maternal mortality crisis through children’s eyes. Inspired by magical realism films like Beasts of the Southern Wild and We the Animals, this coming-of-age short is grounded in reality but includes many fantastical elements, like human-sized turtles and sandy beaches that suddenly appear in the living room.