The first installment of Sassy Mohen’s three part series How To Hack Birth Control, a show focused on cis women’s sex life and the role of birth control in it, is a wickedly funny 30-minute trip into helpful, accurate sex ed, flanked by game show sequences and scene crashings by its charmingly scathing narrator (read… Continue reading How To Hack Birth Control: Sound Information Wrapped In Satirical Goodness
Tag: Private
21st & Colonial: Police Brutality And Its Inevitable Results
21st & Colonial, Angelo Reyes’ 19-minute crime drama (co-written with Toby Osborne), is a depiction of one of many police shootings, where it positions the cop and the victim as the two main characters in a bloody tale. Other characters dot their lives, their circumstances flesh them out into real people, and when they finally… Continue reading 21st & Colonial: Police Brutality And Its Inevitable Results
Mother in the Mist: The Sting Of Sorrow Amidst Disaster
Niuyue Kay Zhang’s tale of tenderness and perseverance in the face of a snowballing disaster, Mother in the Mist is set in Wuhan, just as lockdowns began to be imposed in the initial days. It follows Zhao, a new mother who has yet to see the daughter she gave birth to, and Snowie, a little… Continue reading Mother in the Mist: The Sting Of Sorrow Amidst Disaster
Ode to the Whale of Christ: Religion, Art And Humanity
Replete with religious imagery, David Matthew Johnson’s Ode to the Whale of Christ is a 30-minute experiment in silence. Bleached of sound and colour, it makes for 30 uncomfortable minutes with nothing but a woman’s lonely struggle in a house empty but for her male companion, who does not move nor speak. The silence is… Continue reading Ode to the Whale of Christ: Religion, Art And Humanity
The Masterpiece: Justified Despair And Necessary Striving
Few personal tragedies strike as devastatingly as being told your days are numbered, especially if you are no more than a teenager. Based on a true story, Paul Myzia’s 9-minute drama The Masterpiece showcases just this, and a path back from the spiral of self-destruction that its protagonist goes down. There are almost no dialogues… Continue reading The Masterpiece: Justified Despair And Necessary Striving
Life After: The Winding Road Through Grief
The focus of Jesse Edwards’ Life After is split between the oftentimes desperate search for the meaning of life, and the need for empathy. The two tie together in a story following a dangerous hostage situation and an officer who, for the many lives at stake, is forced to confront her own suppressed grief. The… Continue reading Life After: The Winding Road Through Grief
Gary: The Smart Home From Hell
Gary, a 9-minute horror directed by Michael Rognlie (co-written with John Lee), follows in the tradition of smart devices gone rogue, with the added element of lockdown neuroticism. It is safe to presume that in the years to come this will become its own subgenre. Here, the protagonist and soon to be victim is Mark,… Continue reading Gary: The Smart Home From Hell
Sunday Poem: A Portrait Of Loss And Old Trauma
An artistic feat for Aaron Markus Graf, who has written, directed, shot and edited the 20-minute film, Sunday Poem is the chronicle of loss and tragedy, seen from the inside. We follow Salomè’s perspective, watching her watch as her quietly and loudly relationship falls apart. What makes the relationship fall apart is perhaps the natural… Continue reading Sunday Poem: A Portrait Of Loss And Old Trauma
Journey Home: Finding The Roads To Recovery From Trauma
The night before their wedding anniversary, Hannah wakes to find her husband awake and restless. She does not say anything. This practice of being a silent spectator has continued for months. He is a war veteran, and Hannah does her best to make things easy for him, even if she does not always know how… Continue reading Journey Home: Finding The Roads To Recovery From Trauma
The Four Walls of Charlotte Moreland: Accurate Portrayal Of Abuse And Recovery
A prominent feature of abusive relationships is gaslighting; and the inevitable consequence of being gaslighted is an utterly destabilised sense of self and confusion. Joe Benedetto and Alison Stover’s 23-minute drama The Four Walls of Charlotte Moreland explores the day-to-day of surviving and recovering from such a trauma. The opening scene lays out the story.… Continue reading The Four Walls of Charlotte Moreland: Accurate Portrayal Of Abuse And Recovery