Love Music Shelter: Hollywood Success Drama in Indie Mode

Courtney Miller’s Love Music Shelter is a 19-minute glimpse into a feature length script that charts a talented, teenage, homeless singer’s path out of uncertainty. Surrounded by a motley community of characters who are equally desperate and down on their luck but rarely short on affection, Nat and her mother eke out a living with busking and an almost happy-go-lucky attitude. As much as music dominates the film, Nat’s mother as the source of her life—good and bad—dominates the shape of Nat’s character. 

This overwhelming influence is perhaps never more visible than when Lila (Marsha Dietlein), her mother, clashes with the music teacher, Ms. Williams (Brenda Braxton), as they determine how to get Nat (Laurissa Romain) the support she needs and when it is enough. It is a powerful scene with a showstopper exchange—”I was not born with a silver spoon in my mouth.” ”Well, I was.”—that simultaneously establishes backgrounds to these key characters. Dietlein and Braxton are memorable in what is probably the film’s best executed scene. 

The overall effect of the film is of Nat being shaped anew within a cocoon of influences. As a result, the Alixx Schottland written script packs in a lot of story within nineteen short minutes, feeling almost episodic. Romain infuses the character with an easygoing spunk that is pleasurable enough to blur the rough edges of the narrative, and what’s more, make the feature length something to look forward to. 

Apart from its enjoyable score and the Hollywood-esque drama of it all, the film’s stylized indie visuals are immediately striking, and will probably be the hook for many viewers. Of the large cast, Nat’s friend Sierra (Esther McGregor), and Terrence (Daryl Dismond) stand out, both with strong screen presence. Sierra makes for an especially interesting character; in a way, she and Nat are echoes of Lila and Ms. Williams without the friction. If the friendship is anything to go by, perhaps the latter pair will end up friends rather than bitter rivals in a contest of their own making. 

Love Music Shelter contains these compelling relationships and the promise of more too, what with loaded glances between Nat and a certain prospective student. It is easy and gratifying to imagine the beginning that the film promises at its end: love, music, shelter and everything in between.  

Watch Love Music Shelter Short Film Trailer