Here is a film about the film industry that is so unexpectedly intense and on the point, it can take your breath away. Written and edited by Jacob Seelochan, who also stars as the protagonist and delivers a searing performance, Tomas Howells’ A Casting Room goes headlong at casting practices and racial questions with an… Continue reading A Casting Room: Diversity, But On Their Terms
Tag: Drama
Queen of the Desert: Closing Impossible Divides The Right Way
With a confederate flag proudly hanging in the back of one character’s truck, while the other, a black woman, hitches a ride with him, Queen of the Desert is a tense, loaded film. If that were not enough, the radio announces an APB on a hitchhiker whose description is suspiciously close to that of the young woman.… Continue reading Queen of the Desert: Closing Impossible Divides The Right Way
Été: Nostalgic Summer Love And Poor Ways Of Handling It
Summer and heady romances are something of a rite of passage. Gregory Oke’s Été continues the tradition, but this time emphasizing more on the internal conflict with newly discovered desires than their fate. Set in the English countryside, Été follows Rhys (Dan Patridge), a boy in his late teens, and the attraction he harbours (and has realised rather swiftly)… Continue reading Été: Nostalgic Summer Love And Poor Ways Of Handling It
Unskin: A Mix Of Sci-Fi and Fantasy
Elcid Asaei’s Unskin is a work of science fiction which combines fantasy and urban myth with the grind of everyday life, the blend of which becomes intricately interconnected. A commentary on our capitalist society and our now ingrained apathy, it has you asking, Is one caused by the other? It opens with Roger, trudging through an interview… Continue reading Unskin: A Mix Of Sci-Fi and Fantasy
Hurricane Flora: Ghosts Of A Revolution
Hurricane Flora, directed by Gabriel de Varona, is a 17-minute uneven but moving canvas of memory, trauma, family, and the centerpiece of it all: a rocky, but wholly loving father-daughter relationship, of which, in turn, the father is the highlight. Ernesto (Roberto Marrero), though otherwise vocal about most things, is closed off about his past in Cuba. Unstoppable… Continue reading Hurricane Flora: Ghosts Of A Revolution
Bruised Peach: On Some Of The Roots Of Cyberbullying The Famous
Ying-chen Shu’s 10-minute drama, delving into the death of its protagonist, a K-pop star, Bruised Peach leaves an impact. The death, a suicide, is caused by the cyberbullying and spates of hate comments that the star finds herself faced with. The film opens with Kalli’s (played by Alice Yu) last moments. A journalist, Suzy (Angie Jho Lee)… Continue reading Bruised Peach: On Some Of The Roots Of Cyberbullying The Famous
All Of Our Shadows: The Humanising Beauty Of Boys Reaching Out
All Of Our Shadows does something rare and moving: it allows a boy to be frightened and it allows him to find his own community. The animated film, all of eight minutes, makes no pretensions of bravado. It is natural to be afraid in a dangerous, unstable world, and the film’s 13-year old protagonist is never… Continue reading All Of Our Shadows: The Humanising Beauty Of Boys Reaching Out
Jesse James: An Earnest, Empathetic Portrayal Of Domestic Violence
The first view we have of Jesse, the titular character of Josef Steiff’s Jesse James, he is lying on the grass in his front lawn, a purpling, bloody bruise on his brow, dead look in his eyes. It is incomplete odds with the background score, a light, country piece. Clothes lie strewn around him. The clues begin… Continue reading Jesse James: An Earnest, Empathetic Portrayal Of Domestic Violence
Dimanche: The Neuroses Of Fast Approaching Adulthood
Directed by Fatty Soprano and Shutterr, co-written with Aidan Grossman, the 4-minute French drama Dimanche is a brief, wistful glimpse into the lives of two teenage siblings, each struggling with their own problems. Marie Luciani Grimaldi plays Maya, who does not think she could get into college, and therefore will not try at all. Instead,… Continue reading Dimanche: The Neuroses Of Fast Approaching Adulthood
Farewell Symphony: A Drama About Impossible Choices, Shrouded In Music
The clash between ambition—however radical or modest—and the ties of duty is a conflict with extensive history. The options are thus: sacrifice your aspirations entirely, reach a compromise, or reach for your goals and be forever marked selfish. For the protagonist of Farewell Symphony, Yang Yang, it is a choice that haunts the majority of her adult life, and one she… Continue reading Farewell Symphony: A Drama About Impossible Choices, Shrouded In Music