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Johnny Jeana: Portrait of a Tokyo Rockabilly by James Partridge

This was another fun video essay. Has a more traditional mini-doc approach but the subject matter is fun and made for the camera! It’s interesting to see how people so far removed from the culture of 1950s America gravitate toward it and use this particular style as a vehicle to express similar sentiments of rebellion and individuality. 

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Silly Girl by Hope Dickson Leach

I’m not sure if it’s the 80’s pop music or the hopeful look Joel has as Joanne walks off with Lisa, but the ending of this short makes tears well up behind my eyes. It’s a pleasant surprise of a story, it’s something I had to watch at least three times to truly appreciate: first time was an introduction, the second time was an “OMG” moment of clarification, and the third time validated the “OMG” moment and allowed me to actively think about what I was viewing. I think the writing presents and intelligent and thoughtful conversation about gender and fluidity. What I like most is it that it doesn’t try to provide or even front as if it has all the answers, which can be the hardest hurdle jump when people have the conversation around gender. For instance, how are these two people, who seem to be the same person in different phases of life, even speaking? Is it a time machine? Is it Joel looking back and trying to find the moment that could’ve changed “his” present? Or is this Joanne projecting the imagine “she” has of herself? It could be all of them, after all why would a story about non-conformity conform to standard storytelling techniques? It’s incredibly relatable across the board because if we could, we’d all go back and give our young scared selves the guidance and help we’ve always desired. It’s also an excellent illustration of a gender non-conforming psyche, particularly when Joanne seems genuinely perplexed at how Lisa can say, “I like girls” in one breath then say, “I like you” in the next, emphasizing how she subconsciously doesn’t ascribe to being “a girl”. This is truly a testament to strong storytelling, this heavy complex idea is introduced and somewhat resolved in a single location, with shots and editing that expertly disguise the presence of the camera. I’ve probably said this about another short, but this is truly my favorite one thus far!

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Street Racers by Aurélien Heilbronn

I’m an avid lover of Spanish culture, especially that of Caribbean Latino culture since a ginormous population of the African diaspora is from the Caribbean and South America. Unfortunately, Afro-Latinos aren’t highlighted as much in the media of their own countries. What I love about this is that, even though what they’re doing is illegal and dangerous, you can’t help but be charmed and energized by them and their riding as they interact with one another and the tropical paradise around them. Of course, the visuals are the center piece of the film, but sound for me was the icing on the cake. As the director said, they’re trying to keep boredom at bay, and so it’s not just the speed that disrupts the calm of the tropics but also the infamous roar of the bikes. It heightens the anxiety of the activity from a viewer’s and probably a rider’s perspective. One the most horribly exhilarating thing that happens throughout the video is when the lay on their stomachs as the they ride; revving up the dangers and speed simultaneously. It’s Superman’s pose, they’re doing the impossible, they’re flying. It makes good use of cinematography and staging, especially in the opening slow motion shot of the biker in his helmet and the use of green and blue lighting, which in the case also reflects the masculine energy of their world. The shot that surmises it all for me, it comes toward the end: there’s a rough concrete path cutting thru a small oceanside brush and 3 guys on loud roaring bikes come into the shot making their presence known banishing the tranquility we ascribe to the tropics, to their lives, away. 

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The Bridge by Harrison Boyce

So far this is the shortest essay film I’ve watched from the bunch and I believe what Boyce did differently than the other so far is use the camera itself as an instrument to delve into the great architecture that is the Brooklyn bridge. What I mean is that the camera is doing more than just capturing the scene, it’s also gradually moving around and in on the bridge, giving us a more interactive perspective of the bridge. At first, they show the life around the bridge, joggers stretching, helicopters hovering in the air and various types of boat tugging along in the water below. That’s followed by a great reveal of the bridge from behind what looks like a double-deck tour bus, from there we’re viewers from a distance, maybe looking through a telescope capturing the grand length and height of it all. And before you know it we’re on the bridge looking down on traffic in some angles and just a part of the ever-moving crowd in others, picking up the small details like the constant rumbles and vibrations cause by all the life journeying across it. And finally, we’re staring up at one of the arches, and we’re reminded of its strength and our comparatively miniscule existence at the same time. It’s a very simple approach, even the dialogue is clear and to the point but it’s effective. It doesn’t need a ton of nuance, it’s a simple appreciation for this result of human tenacity and innovation.

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A Guide to Indulgence by Nadia Lee Cohen

A Guide to Indulgence by Nadia Lee Cohen

I really enjoy the way Cohen bought this hyper-stylized luxe fantasy nightmare to life. Unfortunately, the masks were super realistic and accurate to the over-modification of plastic surgery we often see in media today. This is an incredibly carefully curated piece especially in the set and costume design which gives it a nice contrast to some of the previous essays I’ve watched so far. On the technical side I believe this director has done an excellent job of creating an aesthetic-driven art piece that also appeals to the mainstream. It reinforces my belief that you can have thoughtful content and deeper message, and still use techniques that can garner mass appeal. What’s really fascinating to me is how she pairs these figures that are technically “beautiful” with the gross and lifeless. For instance, the luxe décor of the dinner table and the clothing the women wear in contrast to the faces and the under (or not at all) cooked food on the table. Visually these things may be pleasing because they follow the pattern of both the set design and somewhat of what a meal looks like but a closer look reveals how strange, unnatural and inedible they are. 

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When Women Look at Other Women on the Street by Chelsea McMullan

This essay resonates with me in a special way, I’m always checking out and admiring other women and their fashion. And it’s never just a single style that draws my attention, a lot of the time it’s the way they wear it or the fact that I can see so much of who they are just in what they’re wearing. I feel like this video played with my senses in that it played these disengages voices that felt like they were reading my mind out loud while my eyes instinctively tried to read each woman’s style as the camera meandered past or behind them. I often try to avoid being caught looking at other women, as to not offend or make them think I’m “mean-mugging” them (I don’t want any problems), so I wonder how they dealt with filming complete strangers. There definitely a level bravery and boldness to this type of filmmaking.

What this does very well is capture a very special aspect of woman-ness; I often think about how being free from the expectations masculinity allow women to feel comfortable complimenting and acknowledging our admiration of one another. This isn’t always the case and patriarchy still teaches us to compete with one another for men’s attention, and unfortunately plenty of women ascribe to that mentality, but more often I see women stopping one another just to say, “You look great!” or “I love your style” and truly making the other woman’s day. The beautiful irony is that all the “girly” things we like, the things often mocked or viewed as vain simply because they exude femininity, are what helps burgeon our bonds as women or being that just embrace and embody femininity.

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Glow by Ivan Olita

I love this essay! I like how it plays with narrative and cinematic drama while being grounded in this man’s truth, it’s very easy to mistake this for fiction and honestly should be the inspiration for the next blockbuster. It reminds me of anime and films like Akira and the city of Tokyo; distinct, futuristic and highly stylized. This essay you with the backstory of Morohoshi San, for instance he says he did bad things to make money to buy the car and it makes me wonder to what extreme he went to for his most prized possession. Although a lot of us wouldn’t admit it I think we all have a certain amount of pride we indulge in when we look at the things we’ve acquired especially something that we invested so much time to make our own. I feel that the car represents his dedication to have more and maybe be a symbol against his poorer upbringing but is also the outlet to his energy and creativity.

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Not Mom by Reinaldo Marcus Green

I think this video essay does an excellent job of displaying and analyzing the nuances of parenthood. Green elevates the home video footage of him and his son, Rio, spending time together as he reflects on his experience being a first-time father through voice-over. I like that he allows the background noise of the footage play instead of silencing it. It kind of simulates a child run household, there’s always some sort of background noise and chaos going on, but Green’s narration is so compelling that you can’t help but listen as he confesses his fears. I love that his footage includes the not so idyllic moments in Rio repertoire; his falls make you want to leap and save him and when he wets his shorts and confidently announces it you’re both amused and grateful it’s not you that has to figure out what to do next. Parenthood is not all sunshine and possibly anxiety inducing but it also gives people a chance to do and be better.

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Nhlanhla Masondo’s “Sibusile Xaba: Open Letter to Adoniah”

This was another beautiful film, from the aesthetic to the life in captured. I feel that anyone with even limited knowledge of what the filmmaker’s intentions are could grasp the love and appreciation Masondo has for the city and people of Adoniah. What I appreciate most about the film is the humanity it displays and affords the people. The imagery is familiar, like a scene of a market or subway platform in New York City, and that familiarity just highlights the universality of human life. Like the Aitkens film, the cinematography takes a grainier approach, which emphasizes the graininess of life. I personally prefer this to the ultra 4K look of mainstream cinema. I think this helps capture a more realistic perspective of life while embracing imperfections and making them beautiful and cinematic. One of my favorite parts of the film in the montage of civilians at their work stations, specifically when the break eye contact with the camera because it’s intimate and displays each individuals vulnerability and their awareness of it.

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Doug Aitken’s “migration (empire)” Response

I really enjoyed the presentation of Doug Aitken’s migration (empire), the large dark room with surround sound and extremely wide aspect ratio truly immerses you into the desolate motel rooms with the animals. The video is an interesting combination of sad and whimsical. For some reason animals, especially those with an imposing presence like the moose or buffalo, in the overtly manufactured and human spaces makes you want to giggle. From the implied obsession, or connection, the unblinking owl feels with the blinking red light that emulates the rhythm of its own cooing to the “vicious” cougar behaving as playfully with the bed sheets and pillows as my own rambunctious feline companion would. Something I picked up on and would like to utilize in my own film is the use of visual repetition and transitions. The fade up of white noise on a television screen through the glittering ripples of water seemed to be both a metaphor and excellent use of visual storytelling. I love the cinematography, along with the soundtrack, it captures and illustrates the grainy and dustiness of the setting in a call back to Westerns and the aesthetic of un-pioneered land, which also brings out the sadness of the film. The intercut images of the oil drills and coal filled barges traveling down the river are reminders that the simplistic purity of nature is disrupted and perpetually encroached on by us. In contrast, the mere presence of wild animals in those motel rooms creates a sense of invasion, an invasion that becomes amplified once they begin to interact with the environment. When the buffalo uses the corner of the bed to relieve an itch, the little deer taking a drink from the pool, or my favorite, the beaver coincidentally cleaning himself in a full tub. It’s a direct reflection of us humans on their turf, much like the pioneers (and still today) those animals were trying to figure out how to exist in those space.