JZ Murdock’s 28-minute film-poem Pvt. Ravel’s Bolero uses the documentary format to imagine the private life of French composer Maurice Ravel during his service in WWI. Through this, Murdock imagines Ravel’s process that ended with the composition of one of the most famous pieces of classical music, Bolero. Set to the piece itself and other… Continue reading Pvt. Ravel’s Bolero: A Fictional Foray Into the Context of a Musical Masterpiece
Tag: Private
Little Cuts: Friendship Sours into Wounded Rage
Maia Henkin’s Little Cuts is a harrowing psychological horror about hierarchy and abuse in female friendships. The 16-minute film follows Jo and Pam through a vacation in which they want to fix their estranged friendship only for it to go wrong in nightmarish ways. Jo, played by Henkin, is the queen bee that Pam (Elise… Continue reading Little Cuts: Friendship Sours into Wounded Rage
Everyone Writes Memoir: Exploring Truth and Certainty Through a Dying Relationship
Alexander Campbell and Mark Solter’s Everyone Writes Memoir is a 37-minute examination of a relationship on its final legs. Beginning with a prologue, the narrative rewinds the story back to the day of the breakup between Mia and Daniel, digitally networked but in the physical world, cracks seem to have widened into chasms. As the… Continue reading Everyone Writes Memoir: Exploring Truth and Certainty Through a Dying Relationship
The Need: Inside a Mind that Collects Its Demons
Michael Rognlie and E.E. Tallent’s The Need is a horror short about a withdrawn young man who feels universally unwanted. Others pay the price for it. Written by Kennith Darling, the 15-minute film showcases his inner workings just when he is once again on the brink of behaviour that he may not like but compulsively… Continue reading The Need: Inside a Mind that Collects Its Demons
Trial 22: A Perilous Level-Up Game with No Winners
John Ferrer’s Trial 22 is a slick action-horror where the pace is set to such a high rate that characters do not get named. Thus impersonal, the goal of the story is to get from point A to point B. The path is brutal and all collateral is acceptable. For the sake of convenience, the… Continue reading Trial 22: A Perilous Level-Up Game with No Winners
A Close Encounter: The May-December Romance from Hell
Adam Linkenhelt’s A Close Encounter is a sex comedy detailing the meet-cute between two passengers on a near-empty flight. At fifteen minutes long, the film takes the time to follow the budding romance beyond the flight and into the jacuzzi. An unexpected twist leads to a Thanksgiving invite. Thomas (Douglas Olsson, also the screenwriter) meets… Continue reading A Close Encounter: The May-December Romance from Hell
Consumed: Serving Consumerism Plated on a Foundation of Grief
JP Bradham’s Consumed deploys horror and tumultuous film language to showcase the frenzied mental scape of a character caught in the throes of grief and shopping. It is simultaneously committed to silence as denial in incidents both old and fresh, which eventually becomes a well of fear in its own right. As the film closes,… Continue reading Consumed: Serving Consumerism Plated on a Foundation of Grief
Mayfly: Damming Charisma to Look at the Wreck Behind
Keith Andreen’s Mayfly lays bare the fallibility of glorious figures while graphing the ravaging work of grief. Twenty-seven minutes long, the film follows a self-help guru through his protracted, agonizing undoing at the hands of his private life. For the length of the film, it keeps him in a chokehold until he demolishes his public… Continue reading Mayfly: Damming Charisma to Look at the Wreck Behind
Ghoul: Living in Sweetened Horror for A Mother-Son Duo
Magnus Lyche’s 16-minute domestic violence drama Ghoul showcases the experience from the perspective of the child in the household. His sole line of defence, his mother, mediates it for him. As she turns their environment into a digestible fairytale for him—with the concomitant expectation of eventual salvation—the film lays out the powerlessness of it all. … Continue reading Ghoul: Living in Sweetened Horror for A Mother-Son Duo
Favorites: A List of Lost Favorites
Lauren Hoover-directed Favorites is an introspective drama where the past mingles with the present in a depiction of life as we live it within our minds. The protagonist, experiencing the slow disintegration of her relationship, remembers old lovers, finding big and small reflections scattered through her history with love. The screenwriter for the film, Mariasha… Continue reading Favorites: A List of Lost Favorites