How do you define love? Is it the way your partner brings you tea each morning or the heartache you feel when they’re not by your side?

Matthew Sorgie, who graduated from the School of Cinematic Arts in May with his bachelor’s in animation and digital arts, ponders these questions in his capstone film, “So Be It.”

“So Be It” tells the stories of five older queer couples in an animated documentary format, highlighting each couple’s unique spirit, dynamic and, of course, love. After almost two years working on the project, Sorgie will now submit the short to film festivals.

When Sorgie decided what to focus on for his capstone, he thought about the reason he had come to USC in the first place: “to combine art and storytelling with purpose.” With that in mind, he wanted to bridge a gap he noticed in the queer representation he had growing up.

“I really didn’t have role models of love to look up to, and I think for a lot of young queer people, that makes it feel like it’s not possible for you to have a lifelong partnership,” Sorgie said. “[Queer representation] focuses a lot on the coming-out experience and adolescent experience, and then the timeline sort of stops, and you’re like, ‘Wait, what happens next?’ I knew these stories existed. It was just a matter of finding them and capturing them.”

The audience gets to know the couples in the context of the homes they’ve created together, with Sorgie carefully animating each detail, from the texture of Roy and Jim’s couch to Gordon and Joe’s Disney memorabilia. Sorgie interviewed most of the couples in person, allowing for more candid conversations.

“My favorite thing growing up at a family party was to sit with my grandparents and ask them to tell me their stories,” Sorgie said. “I modeled these conversations off of that experience. I wanted them to almost feel like I was their grandson, just picking their brain about their stories.”

Sorgie connected with some of the couples through The Outwords Archive, an organization that publishes oral histories of LGBTQIA+ elders. Others were through “a friend of a friend of a friend,” Sorgie said.

The result was a lively, accomplished group of queer couples, including Barbara and Shelley, award-winning scientists and advocates for LGBTQIA+ inclusivity in STEM, as well as Joselito and Richard, two activists focused on wellness, spirituality and queerness.

“Every couple had a really unique story like that, and it was about finding a way to thread all of their different stories together,” Sorgie said. “Every individual shows love in their own unique way.”

He interviewed the couples with producer Liya Yang and sound designer Alice Wibisono, an intergenerational experience Yang found to be “incredibly moving.”

“Seeing how they interacted in such a loving way … I was like, ‘Wait, this is what life is about,’” said Yang, who graduated from SCA in 2024 with a degree in film and television production. “These emotions and these experiences that people share are not fairy tales.”

Sorgie worked with composer Bartosz Gruchała to score the film, drawing inspiration from “Married Life” from “Up” (2009). Musicians played the score live April 25 on USC’s Williams Scoring Stage, led by pianist Harlan Hodges.

“We thought that the audience should feel warmth, love and joy for most of the film, and then there is a small middle part where we basically wanted them to cry,” said Gruchała, who completed his master’s in screen scoring at the Thornton School of Music in May. “We had to figure out the map of the music.”

With each couple’s definition of love, “So Be It” proves that love is multifaceted and persists in the face of adversity.

“Love is not an easy thing … It’s something that you work towards, and that’s why it’s so resilient. It’s equal parts you and your partner,” Yang said. “When I was interviewing the people there, they just felt like two pieces of a whole.”

The emotional climax of the film comes when Jim describes losing his partner, Roy. Up until that moment, Sorgie animated the partners side by side.

“Throughout my many conversations with Jim, he always talked about the fact that it felt like Roy was still there, and it would always make him so emotional, but he would always say, ‘Our love is so strong that I don’t feel like he has passed. He is still right there beside me,’” Sorgie said. “I felt like it honored how strong their connection and their love was.”

“So Be It” has now screened twice and will start competing in film festivals. At the film’s first screening, Sorgie saw some of the documentary’s subjects watch it for the first time.

“For the interviewees who got to experience that, seeing themselves on screen and feeling like what they have achieved was significant, was a big reason why I wanted to make the project as well,” Sorgie said. “It’s not about just having these role models for young people but also immortalizing these stories. Against all odds, y’all built a lifetime of love.”

In his interview with Richard and Joselito, Sorgie said the pair made a note of “the fight not being over.” He hopes “So Be It” can evoke empathy with a wider audience and resonate with people who show love in all of its forms.

“In a world where there can be so much hatred, seeing people in love and showing it in their own way is such a beautiful thing to bear witness to,” Sorgie said. “Hopefully, people can be inspired to celebrate that and see the beauty in a really diverse definition of love.”