Author: Sristi Gayen

Town Hall. Casey Lock styles this story of townspeople affected by corporate greed like a courtroom drama. In a small town, the city councillor is retiring. A kindly man with a booming voice, Carl (Steve Herson) is being replaced by his colleague, Olivia (Robyn Coffin), a woman on the Vinci company’s trail with the certainty… Continue reading Town Hall: Going The Unorthodox Extra Mile For The Greater Good

Violence in cinema means little in and of itself. Each significant act of violence on screen is built up with meaningful plot and characters so that when blood finally runs, it has the emotional impact that lasts for at least a while. Without that backing, it can feel feeble – or worse still, evoke no… Continue reading Vengeance Runs Red: Classic Tale of Exacting Revenge

Taher Bowman might just remind you of Miles Morales. He is a regular kid with a cop father, with more interest in art than academics who finds out in a life or death situation that he has superpowers. Adante Watts’ Catch introduces us to Taher, played by Zephaniah Terry, in this 22-minute story, with the… Continue reading Catch: A New Superhero Series In The Making

People’s reaction to trauma is so mind-bogglingly complex and varied, that simplistic reasoning does not necessarily explain or predict it. Some close down, some breakout but clumsily, while some others might just try to go about their daily lives as though nothing happened. Manuela Vasquez’s Lighthouse delves into the reaction a dancer, Paige has to… Continue reading Lighthouse: Important Story Clumsily Told

Covering a small but crucial moment of reforming old bonds between two sisters, Amanda Spencer’s drama Every Grain of Sand, co-written by Toby Osborne, rests in the realm of bitterness, quasi-catharsis and just approaching peace.  In a stifling trailer, Mae (Tara Riggs, of DeKalb Elementary fame) finds her grave resentment explode upon losing the last… Continue reading Every Grain of Sand: Grappling With Different Kinds of Grief

Finally, we get a clown film that clowns instead of scaring unsuspecting children into a paralysing lifelong fear of people who are only trying to make you laugh. Written by Jack George and directed by Jack B. Levy, Stop IT! sneaks in the giggles, satisfying itself with winning the small battles and merrily mocking itself… Continue reading Stop IT!: Stopping Pennywise With Jokes

Filippo Savoia’s Modern Animals does not have a cat-and-mouse chase in it, but it has the unmistakable influence of the Coen brothers’ masterpiece, No Country For Old Men. Co-written by Guillermo Noriega, Modern Animals is a murderous philosophical deliberation on choice, violence and humankind’s capacity for both.  A murder has taken place in a small… Continue reading Modern Animals: Philosophy, Violence and Gossip with A Dash of Style