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
Tag: Private
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
Garage: A Resonant Portrayal Of PTSD
The nature of trauma is vicious. It traps you in the past, in specific boxes of the past. You can look out of it, pretend you are not within it, but it invariably pulls you back down and inside again. Repeatedly. Places become haunted. Sounds become haunted. Even your name can become haunted. Aaron Sanders portrays this in the… Continue reading Garage: A Resonant Portrayal Of PTSD
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
Out At Night: When Supernatural And (In)Human Horror Meet
A horror film in more ways than one, Christopher Hewitt’s 17-minute Out At Night borrows its central idea from A Quiet Place (2018): a monster sensitive to sound. There is no alien activity involved this time, and instead, the emphasis falls on the despicable inhumanity of one man. Martin (Alastair G. Cumming) picks up Will (Andrew Wheildon-Dennis) at the… Continue reading Out At Night: When Supernatural And (In)Human Horror Meet
Read Between The Lines: Come For the Romance, Stay For The Personal Growth
A bouncy rom-com, Read Between The Lines is funny, textured with inside jokes, and an overall efficient entertainer. Written and directed by Adante Watts, the 14-minute film follows a college-going boy with a crush on his classmate, and the trials and tribulations of trying to ask someone out when every cell in your body wants to collapse… Continue reading Read Between The Lines: Come For the Romance, Stay For The Personal Growth
The Doll: Why A Child Sees Marriage As Escape
Elahe Esmaili’s 33-minute documentary, The Doll, on the deliberations and uncertainty over the marriage of a 14-year old Iranian girl is a gripping film with an uncanny ability to be subtle and maintain restraint, and yet pose questions for its subjects and its audience. This leads to fascinating character studies, as well as the depiction of… Continue reading The Doll: Why A Child Sees Marriage As Escape
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
Polaroid: Revenge Drama Dipped In Mystery And Megalomania
Dante Aubain’s Polaroid takes Patrick Bateman, and everything he represents, perhaps even more than that, and makes it anew, this time allowing the other side a spot at the table as well. In some ways, it is the familiar revenge drama, but looked at through the lens of American Psycho (as it is intended to be), the subtext comes… Continue reading Polaroid: Revenge Drama Dipped In Mystery And Megalomania