The film was shot before the oral arguments on DOMA before the Supreme Court in March 2013, so the film is not informed of the final Supreme Court ruling in June.
Saturday, September 28, 2013
DC Shorts: "Legal Stranger". "Girl Clown", and "Rake's Commitment"
I attended DC Shorts Program 3 at the Angelika Mosaic Center
Friday night. At first glance, the films in the program as a whole don’t look
as substantive as in the past (few are longer than fifteen minutes), but a few
of the films last night had a surprising impact.
Let’s start with the longest, a comedy “Girl Clown” (Beth
Spitalny, 15 min). A somewhat introverted
secretary Laura (Crystal Faith Scott) finds herself drawn into becoming a party
clown. She even gets hired because she
shows up at the interview not trying to become one. There seem to be some secret covens in her
New York (Brooklyn?) brownstone apartment where spirits or beings drive her on
to new directions, and there is a beautiful cat. In one of my own novel manuscripts, a female
character has a secret chamber that leads her into unusual understandings about
one of her kids.
“Rake’s Commitment” (“El Rastrillo se quiere comprometer”,
14 min), by Santi Veiga, presents us with a gaunt Huberto (Javier Coll), who
approaches his wife or girl friend (Julia Moyano) about having a child. She
retorts that he needs to find something larger than himself to commit himself
to. Is this a call for Rick Warren’s “Purpose-Driven
Life”? The film goes through all the
possible causes, and Huberto finds it hard to get enthused about someone else’s
problems. One of the causes is gay
rights, which gets rather oblique mention.
Can Huberto find enough purpose outside himself to become a good father,
or will fatherhood itself be enough purpose?
The film is set in modern day Madrid.
“Legal Stranger” (14 min., directed by Amanda Lucidon)
presents us a lesbian couple, Amy and Alex, who were married legally in the
District of Columbia but who live in a palatial home in Alexandria, VA. They use surrogacy for Alex to get pregnant,
and have the child in April 2012 (the film shows the ultrasound and birth
process, almost in Morgan Spurlock fashion).
But then, in Virginia, there are enormous legal complications in giving
Amy the legal status of parent. The film
does trace a little bit of the history of the Marshall-Newman Amendment in
Virginia, 2006, banning any legal recognition of same-sex unions. I live in Arlington, and people always say,
living in VA is slightly cheaper than MD or DC, but has horrible politics. The film presents the strong case for gay
equality from an individual rights perspective, but other films in the set give
some perspective on a more collective idea of moral thinking. In states that refuse to recognize same-sex
couples, the partners are “legal strangers”. Sponsored by Reel Affirmations
The film was shot before the oral arguments on DOMA before the Supreme Court in March 2013, so the film is not informed of the final Supreme Court ruling in June.
The film was shot before the oral arguments on DOMA before the Supreme Court in March 2013, so the film is not informed of the final Supreme Court ruling in June.
“The Big Leap” (10 min, Kristoffer Rus, Sweden) presents three people
on top of a skyscraper, threatening to leap after a financial crisis (maybe the
debt ceiling?) The city, created with
CGI, looks like it is on an island on another planet, or perhaps in China.
“Ouverture” (5 min, BW animation, Bracey Smith and Neil
Dvorak). A girl spills out music (Bach, music from a cantata transcribed to
piano) and the notes take on physical form.
“Worlds We Created” (10 min). About the time we first walked on the Moon, a
little boy must face the limits of imagination.
“T’ai Chi Man!” (2 min), a real short-short based on martial
arts movies.
“The Primaeval Father” (3 min, animated) gives us an idea
why the Neanderthals sustained themselves a long time but could not innovate.
“Duel” (4 min, Portugal).
A man and a woman, yes.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment