Interviews with shorts filmmakers.
Nick Neon’s ZERO ONE, which recently screened at aGLIFF (the All Genders, Lifestyles, and Identities Film Festival) in Austin, is a familiar story treated with so much style, eye-catching visual flair and clever ear-catching lines that it seems almost unfairly fresh and exuberant.
as Rose states, “This is a story about queer people just living.” Therefore, by design, what is exceptional about the film isn’t a crisis about her situation or her journey. No, what is exceptional is that rarely do we get such a direct, unapologetic in its sexual-politics, view of this world, not to mention an exploration of the gulf that sometimes exists between physical and emotional intimacy – without hanging onto a tragic moment or stock hurdle to overcome. The filmmaking is as assured as the lead character is when she is on her game, and the patience to breathe in between the “in between” Rose speaks of, makes the moments land with that much more of an impact.
I think BAD THINGS is a movie that needs to find its audience. It’s been really surprising and wonderful to show it to people who love it. After my screening at WTxFF, I was in another theater waiting for another film to start when a group of women sitting in front of me turned around and told me they’d seen BAD THINGS earlier in the day and were still talking about it. They’d been discussing the ending and debating things about the characters — and they wanted to let me know how much they loved the film. After that, winning the Storyteller Award was bonus!
We both were super on-board with throwing our vanity out the window for this one. As women in this industry, we are constantly judged on the way we look. We wanted this film to be relatable and genuine, and we wanted to highlight the mental and emotional focus of this story, so we checked our egos at the door and stayed true to our vision of rawness and honesty.
Making the film, I really tried to put myself into the male character’s POV. In doing so, I had more empathy for men and realized how confusing my own signals can be, even with the best of intentions. I think if both men and women worked harder to step into one another’s shoes more often, then we might have hope of communicating better and truly understanding one another.
Kyle Taubken’s short film, PATRICK, achieves one of the most difficult tasks for a short film: It delivers a nuanced story light on obvious moments to grab the viewer that can’t be sharply critiqued or considered with an “A to B equals C” type of assessment.
MINORITY lands us in a “reverse world” scenario where a white man in a hoodie falls under suspicion of a black convenience store clerk because he is “shopping while being white.” Countless Facebook political debates have posed this scenario to racists and racist-apologists since Trump’s political ascension in 2016 (and, frankly, long before), but Robbins astutely keeps his film as basic and direct as it gets.
Catherine Cobb Ryan’s directorial debut, SEASON OF PASSAGE, is not just an example of “direct what you know,” but almost approaches an exorcism by film, if you will, as she tackles an intensely personal look at the experience of going through a miscarriage.
Bible scores with EXIT STRATEGY by remembering two very key requirements that make that film or a film like GROUNDHOG DAY a classic and so many other films a nice try at best: He gives us characters to care about and one character in particular who grows during the course of his impossible journey.
A loving ode to the late 60s/early 70s as well as a delicately drawn coming-of-age memoir about a young woman’s upbringing by a “wild” single mother, Suzanne Racz’s short film WILLOW demonstrates the first-time filmmaker’s sense of style behind the camera as well as her depth as a storyteller.
