Alex Bates’s 19-minute Born of Water pays heavy attention to its surroundings in order to create an atmospheric effect as its protagonist stubbornly evades death. The setting is Guernsey in 1372. One raider who has invaded the island pursues a young mother through the forest and across the shores. What will it cost to win… Continue reading Born of Water: A Warrior is Brought to Life
Tag: Private
The Killer Service: Friendship and Rage Unite in Thriller Origin Story
Gio Randazzo’s The Killer Service sets up the origin story of its protagonist, Elliott for an upcoming series. A proof-of-concept thriller written by Randazzo and Miranda Rausch, it portrays a young woman with inherited debt and few legal ways to pay it off. Finding herself backed into a corner a little too tight, Elliott decides… Continue reading The Killer Service: Friendship and Rage Unite in Thriller Origin Story
Ill Fares the Land: Guilt, Fear and Conflict in a Story (Not) About a Mermaid
Patrick Ireland’s Ill Fares the Land succeeds in creating the impression of something alive out of itself. And indeed it is alive, chiefly with guilt, fear, and unceasing friction between an impoverished island and the larger world. The protagonist is a young teenage boy, who has not spoken in nearly two years, overwhelmed by worlds… Continue reading Ill Fares the Land: Guilt, Fear and Conflict in a Story (Not) About a Mermaid
Mandje: The Limits of Greed and the Steep Fall Beyond
Cameron Currin and Cody Kristapovich’s 18-minute Mandje is a loose adaptation of The Fisherman and His Wife (adapted by Josh Hughes) substituting the grand scale of its progression for a more rustic, folk mood. The film wants to reinforce the anti-fairytale nature of the story and thus attempts to be psychological and gritty, something along… Continue reading Mandje: The Limits of Greed and the Steep Fall Beyond
Are We Doing This?: Sex, Murder, and Misunderstandings at an Office Party
Harvey Puttock’s Are We Doing This? loves a good misunderstanding. Arriving with the hopes of facilitating a promotion at work, Mia attends a party thrown by her boss. The 10-minute film lets her mistake play out into an awkwardly humorous situation that does not escalate so much as it maps out all the ways Mia… Continue reading Are We Doing This?: Sex, Murder, and Misunderstandings at an Office Party
God Willing: Tale of Slow Ruin and its Violent Grief
Valentina Tross’ God Willing, written by Hooriah Riaz, is ambitiously and beautifully melodramatic, if somewhat constrained by its runtime. At under 16 minutes, the film portrays the last leg of a musician’s life using an emotional excess that perfectly fits the premise. The closer it gets to the end, the narrative gets further entrenched in… Continue reading God Willing: Tale of Slow Ruin and its Violent Grief
Playground: The View from the Left Behind Daughter
Playground constructs a duality of experience for its child protagonist in her relationship with her mother: frightening chaos on the one hand, and silence on the other. Through this duality, Yaxing Lin’s 16-minute drama frames the girl against all adult life as a scale for her smallness, a measure in its stead for her loneliness… Continue reading Playground: The View from the Left Behind Daughter
The Countryman: Negotiation with the Rules of the Western
Andy Kastelic’s The Countryman has blossomed out of the Western, owes its distinction to the genre, and leaves behind the impression of something that is, in many ways, truly remarkable. With only 22 minutes on hand, its wandering protagonist has the task of changing the nature of a farming community facing the brunt of post-war… Continue reading The Countryman: Negotiation with the Rules of the Western
LifeQuest: Personifying Science and Business
Richard Lounello’s 28-minute sci-fi LifeQuest interweaves two narrative threads, one existing under the ambit of the other: a corporate invention poised to become a trillion dollar product. The protagonist, a man at the cusp of an academic career and married life, lives through a blissful life until it is interrupted in a way no one… Continue reading LifeQuest: Personifying Science and Business
Genre INC.: Programmed Experiences and Their Unsettling Recycle Bin
Ela Gavrila’s 16-minute Genre INC. is a sci-fi that explores constructed, corporate mediated personal realities. Co-written by Gavrila and Gabriel Molnar, its protagonist is a young woman who repeats evening after evening that she is a hopeless romantic. Her companion listens, but never speaks. Alexa’s (Gavrila) daily loop is presented in two versions. In the… Continue reading Genre INC.: Programmed Experiences and Their Unsettling Recycle Bin