Kevyn Tapia’s bold and surprising NEX-IS-US is a 35-minute drama with three interlinked narratives unfolding over the course of a day. It is a remarkably well written film, especially for a young filmmaker, even if it sometimes drops the ball. Featuring five teenagers and the adults on their periphery, the non-linear narrative makes the pieces… Continue reading NEX-IS-US: Profoundly Sorrowful Teen Ensemble Drama
Tag: Private
All Dogs Go to Heaven: Dystopian Sci-Fi About A Very Convenient Chip
Sebastian C. Santisteban’s All Dogs Go to Heaven, written by Gian Bonacchi, Neal Ludevig, Sergio Sanchez, and Daniel Moreno Skurve, tells the story of a dystopian, totally distant future with no connection to our own world whatsoever, ruled by the powers of a chip called Unneurolink. Totally different, completely unconnected, zero allusions. Much of the… Continue reading All Dogs Go to Heaven: Dystopian Sci-Fi About A Very Convenient Chip
Abigail: A Powerhouse Performance in Drama About End of Life and Heartbreak
Max Hechtman and Christonikos Tsalikis’s Abigail, written by Jason K. Allen, Max Hechtman, and Meryl Hechtman, is a view into the swirling, disorienting mass of grief that has woven itself into the life of an aged man without his wife. Instead of a chronological order, the structure sandwiches the good days within the bad to… Continue reading Abigail: A Powerhouse Performance in Drama About End of Life and Heartbreak
Conscript: Atomic Tests Drama Bolstering Truth with Fiction
Daniel Everitt-Lock’s Conscript is a 13-minute drama about the night before a young man leaves for his conscription and is doomed. With the ghost of nuclear war embedded into his family, Alex’s last evening at home becomes a little break in time that is like nothing before or after that day. The draft brings old… Continue reading Conscript: Atomic Tests Drama Bolstering Truth with Fiction
Stay with Me: Accumulating Trauma and Grief
Samuel Ladouceur’s 9-minute Stay with Me, written by Yanatha Desouvre, is a tragedy spun with autobiographical elements. Spanning a fateful lunch between a mother and son, the film tries to show the sheer weight of the bad coincidence of losing loved ones in the same way over and over. Set in Haiti, shot in Little… Continue reading Stay with Me: Accumulating Trauma and Grief
Death by Numbers: Parkland Massacre Docu that Knows What’s More Important
Kim A. Snyder’s 37-minute Death by Numbers, written by and about Sam Fuentes, a Parkland survivor emphasises the trauma as well as its source without ever feeling like a true crime documentary. It is not interested in digging up the shooter’s profile as if there is some secret mystery to it all. Hatred is banal… Continue reading Death by Numbers: Parkland Massacre Docu that Knows What’s More Important
In the Shadow of the Cypress: An All-Around Triumph
At Berlinale, Ethan Hawke called all artistic effort a compassion engine. He must have had Hossein Molayemi and Shirin Sohani’s In the Shadow of the Cypress in mind. It is a film that closes its impassioned fingers around your aorta and strums feeling right into your bones. The story of a father, daughter, and trauma… Continue reading In the Shadow of the Cypress: An All-Around Triumph
Anywhere the Wind Blows: Carrying On, Or Ways to Honour What Was Lost
Jay Liu’s Anywhere the Wind Blows overlaps the political with the personal to illustrate that, yes, the personal is as political as the political is personal. As we follow an evening in the life of a HongKonger in the US haunted by the memory of home, we begin to see the overlaps within the collapsing… Continue reading Anywhere the Wind Blows: Carrying On, Or Ways to Honour What Was Lost
1 Degré de Séparation: Big Family Drama and A Wedding
5pm Productions’ first short film 1 Degré de Séparation (directed by Sonia Rossier) is a drama that at least half of its characters would call denial, and at least some of the other half would insist is of devotion. Nonetheless, it is a drama following Victoria on her wedding day with her family ranging from… Continue reading 1 Degré de Séparation: Big Family Drama and A Wedding
Muted: Psychological Drama on Coming Temporarily Undone
Chris Zou’s Muted is a frenzied six-minute study session that at once should be familiar to (too) many and feels gratifyingly revelatory. It follows Jessica, daughter of Chinese immigrants, on the cusp of exploding or imploding, whichever can come and make it quicker. The pressure to excel academically and professionally seems to follow similar infinite… Continue reading Muted: Psychological Drama on Coming Temporarily Undone