"Love Book": curious short film using Facebook; "And the Sky Turned Black": a gay journalist is blinded in a terror attack in Pakistan

On a day I was busy storm-watching, I found a 15-minute short “Love Book”. Directed by Muhammad Aasim  Qamar, curiously under “LGBT short films” on YouTube, but this film was straight and it might have been filmed in Pakistan (it might be Karachi; the outdoors scenes look tropical). 

  

Ali Agzhar is an appealing late teen in a private high school.  He is shy, by the meets Noor Malik on Facebook and then in class.  The visuals of much of the film center around how Facebook works, which is a curious fimmaking concept. The earl scenes are in black and white, and tepia tints (especially purple) are graduakky introduced to convert to color.  Ali’s Blackberry is actually white.  The film has no spoken dialogue; it’s all Facebook -- and "Likeonomics". .

  

The film comes from Radiant Pictures and Maq Creativity.

Meanwhile, I found a real bonus:

The 11-minute short  “And The Sky Turned Black”, directed by Ellis Watamanuk, with Nicholas Wilder and Travis Grant, presents an intimate encounter where a blind photojournalist picks up a gay trick, and then tells the story, with few words, of how he was blinded in a terrorist attack in Karachi.  He explains what he has lost, and wonders if his new friend is someone he knew, who could have betrayed him.

There have been several attacks against the US consulate in Karachi (Wiki link), and pparently there is an ongoing incident now. . 

  

The link is here. See also "A Mighty Heart", reviewed June 24, 2007.