Asherah's Colors - Review

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Romance, destiny and art in this film with delicate and impressionist hues.

Asherah's colors,  written, directed and produced by Gary Mazeffa, is a short film that delicately and passionately explores how a young love can influence the path of a man's life.

Raphael (Connor Tuohy) is bewitched by the fascinating and wild Asherah (Shira Behore).  The burning desire to break into the heart of the girl, passionate about art, convinces him to take her to the colorful studio of the artist Hessam Abrishami -  esteemed American artist of Iranian origin - who with his beautiful paintings perfectly represents the emotions and feelings that the two young people are feeling.

Between dream and reality, two lives meet, get to know each other, and blend together... only fate will take care of the rest.

Perfect direction embellished with natural and engaging interpretations make this short film a small work of art.

Breathe, listen to the heartbeat of nature...and dance!

Sequoia Spirits, directed and produced by Cherie A Carson and David Creech, is an incredible and fascinating immersion in that magical place called Redwood Grove, located in Mendocino.

Suggestive shots accompanied by the splendid music of Okorie Johnson give us the impression of being able to touch these ancient giants that can boast a life of almost 1800 years.

The filming and the editing are lively and dynamic like the steps of the three fantastic dancers (Helium Valentine, Kiran Satellite Haithcox and Chris Spiteri) who with playful and graceful movements (choreographed by Cherie A Carson) make think about the funny fairies and fauns of an enchanted forest.

Thanks to their marvelous aerobic talent, we become fire, air and earth.

We enter this verdant splendor, we can twirl among the trees and  we can smell the air of this holy amazing place.

Everything really works in this adorable short film where the dance follows the magical rhythm of the Sequoias's heart.

The scariest monsters live inside our heads.

 
Confines, written by Neil Bason and directed by the Emmy Nominated Richard Bazley, is a poignant short film that touches the most fragile chords of human beings. 

A man finds himself struggling with his restlessness and anxiety all his life. 

Born in terror, he continues to live for years in the darkness of his mind until the love for a woman, Hope (Vivien Taylor), opens not only his heart but also his eyes; love helps him discover that life can be calm and peaceful and  it gives him Faith, a wonderful little girl who is a strong and radiant light, so powerful that she frees him for a moment from the inner obscurity that afflicts him.

But death looms and, with it,  also desperation, anger and the inability to take care of a daughter.

Slave to his dark thoughts, his demoralizing voices, his regrets and his memories, the man finds himself inexorably inside a claustrophobic and apparently impassable labyrinth 

With a powerful but at the same time delicate direction, Bazley manages in a truly sensitive way to make us experience this exhausting struggle that the protagonist (an intense Luke F Dejahang) fights against himself and his demons inside a mental prison from which he will try to escape...

Despair, desolation and the desire to start over are the basis of this film where the beautiful music of Adrian Chivers and Daniel Pennie plays a fundamental role.

Disturbing breaths, sighs of hungry beasts, groans, dull heartbeats, moans, laughter… feeling and sexuality contrast and shape each other in Embrace Disruption,  written and directed by Johanne Chagnon – polyhedric and visionary artist – where three static and moving segments give life to an interesting experimental short film full of meanings.

Passionate and active for more than thirty years in various disciplines such as sculpture, painting, photography, movement of voice, movement of body and installation, Chagnon gives us a visual experience where she herself uses her elastic body as a medium of communication to let us enter her personal universe.

 Thoughts, obsessions, sexual pulsions create union, then confusion, then manipulation, then disintegration.

There is so much of everything in this controversial, suggestive film where the viewer can really have the chance to become one with the disorder...and chaos. 

Erik Dreng Jacobsen takes us on a journey full of music, different cultures and different faces.

Musical Moments is a short film that collects memories and sounds taken around the world with great order and devotion.

A variegated collection of moments and images with a single universal point in common: Music.

We travel with the director, and with him we discover the most disparate ethnic groups and the most diverse musicalities.

Seychelle, Norway, Mombasa, India, Brazil, Paris and many other parts of the globe...our eyes and our ears are full of curiosity.

We discover different rhythms  where we don't need to speak the same language to understand each other.

Twenty minutes of memories where the director's voice introduces us to every performance, every melody, every instrument.

What is most striking is the smile on the faces of those who sing and play, and the one that consequently forms on the face of the spectator.

It's a surrealist dream. A reflection. A declaration of love.

Diamond Dust, written, directed and produced by Ann Huang - Chinese-born, Mexican-raised, and US-based filmmaker - is a speaking painting, a poem made up by other poems and images that, just as it happens in the dream world, may appear confused but are instead imbued with symbols, hidden meanings, unconscious messages and alive or dormant emotions.

There is everything we could want from a visionary film where the protagonist, despite moments of darkness, desolation, despondency, rediscovers herself and moves on.

Huang's voice - also narrator of the short film - accompanies us in this voyage where you can move from color to black and white, from movement to stillness. In her voice we can perceive all the tenderness she felt and feel for her beloved mother Xiao-Ling Hou to whom this work is dedicated.

The film is a demonstration of how art can be healing and inspiring. 

And how life itself - in good times and bad times - can create art.

The frantic search for the Holy Grail is the incandescent fulcrum of this intricate Thriller/Mystery where espionage and daring escapes follow one another between present and past.

In 2003 Dan Brown and his famous "Da Vinci Code" - which in 2006 became the cinematic success that we all know - excited and opened curiosity about the Priory of Sion, a secret organization with the aim of protecting the truth and the lineage of Christ which respects and values ​​the Sacred Feminine.

The Priory of Sion, written by Florence Cazebon-Taveau and published by editions Edilivre, is a screenplay where mediumship, mysticism, esotericism, numerology and spirituality can be felt from the first to the last page.

A compelling story where reality and fiction blend to create a mix of many stories, where good and evil spy on each other, follow each other and fight.

The location of the entire feature film is Rennes-le-Château, - the Rhedae of the Visigoths - a favorite destination for curious people and enthusiasts of mystery and hidden treasures that bear the imprint of Templars, gypsies and courageous knights.

The main protagonists of the present (2022) are Florence (a medium) and Patrick, two young friends passionate about Occitan history who, full of enthusiasm and a pinch of recklessness, go in search of the Holy Grail (and the gold that accompanies it) and that during their adventurous stay they will have to deal with the inquisitorial eyes of Opus Dei who fear the young woman's clairvoyance gift.

The main protagonists of the past (back in 1896) are instead two couples who almost oppose each other, highlighting the differences that characterize two religious men and their respective helpers: they are the Abbot Bérenger Saunière and his maid/lover Marie Denarnaud; and the Abbot Henri Boudet and the young and beautiful Manon.

Saunière  embodies the fragility of the human being, his weakness in front of carnal temptations, his gluttony and his lust for wealth; Henri Boudet appears closer to God and much more dedicated to helping others with the aid of his apprentice Manon with whom he goes from house to house to heal the sick, thus teaching the girl - who we will discover to be a medium and pranotherapist - everything he knows about medicinal plants.

But everything wonderfully turns around the Grail, its fascinating mystery, its uncertain history, the figure of Jesus Christ, Mary Magdalene and iconic characters such as Victor Hugo, George Sand, Baudelaire, Emma Calvè, Chopin, Wagner, Debussy, the Empress Sissi and Verlaine who, in addition to being part of the Priory of Sion, share the same need to protect their precious documents from the dirty hands of Brouillards esoteric society.

Although reading requires a good dose of attention and memory due to the many flashbacks and the large number of characters and places in which the story unfolds, the writing is meticulous and exciting and the characters are so well described that they can be easily imagined in the flesh.

Two hundred pages full of enigmas, special effects - there are many scenes where both Florence and Manon have visions - and twists.; where conspiracies, poisonings and murders passed off as natural deaths are ordinary administration.

The Priory of Sion is without a doubt a screenplay that deserves to be transformed into a film...a new acclaimed Film!

Katharine Hepburn once said: “Life is hard.. after all it kills you”,  and she was damn right.

Life is hard  especially when you have to deal with feelings and personal fulfillment.

The can, directed by Shadow C. LaValley & Danielle Purdy is a short film that with great tenderness and sincerity orbits around the life of Timothy (Shadow C. LaValley), a young man probably in search of himself more than anything else.

About ten years of life retraced in 22 minutes: together with the protagonist we experience what seems to be his first true love made of passion and uncertainty with Jessica (Hannah Schill) - an older woman, mother of a child - and their new life as a family; we experience the discovery of his future paternity and his consequent bitterness at seeing both the relationship he had believed in and his paternity fade away.

The days at work, the reproaches of a loving mother (Zoë Yeoman), the fleeting love affairs, the regrets, the disappointments, the sense of inadequacy, the sadness, the desperate desire to die, the desperate desire to live...

Timothy bring us on the rollercoaster and we almost want to hold his hand because we too have been Tim -  at least once in our lives - and we know that you have to hit the bottom to get back to the surface.

Thanks to a very good direction, a well-prepared cast, and a beautiful. music  by J.M. Quintana Cámara, The Can is a film that lightly goes into depth, managing to tackle important issues such as abortion, alcohol addiction and attempted suicide.

It is the story of a simple but extremely complicated life, a life like many others perhaps, which finds the meaning of failure and the key to move on  in the small things... small things like a can.

Every single day life presents us with many challenges and many facts - sometimes harsh - to accept.

Grace Samson & Barry Samson are the directors of Cats and Husbands, a bittersweet short film that with great grace and truthfulness talks about pain, loss and  the private difficulty that a woman - and a man too - can experience in having to live with the inability to become a parent.

A delicate and intimate film  that invites us to get to know the two protagonists, Fern (Rae Cofsky) and Marcie (Vanessa Simon), two friends - with different lives and family situations - who meet in a coffee shop  to celebrate not what could initially seems a birthday, but the sad anniversary of a miscarriage.

Fern in fact has lost a child  and after two years  of cycles of In Vitro she seems to have surrendered to a reality that gives her no peace; and her husband seems - almost comically - to prefer  filling his days and his own emptiness by dressing up their cat. 

Despite the poignant topic, there is a warm sense of lightheartedness.

The two actresses demonstrate great sensitivity and talent, letting the public breathe that sweet complicity and family atmosphere that only true friendships can convey. 

Rule number one: be colorful! Rule number two: enjoy yourself!

Star Dance music video directed and performed by Elvira Kalnik - singer, songwriter, model, producer and filmmaker -  is a concentration of color and enthusiasm, supreme proof that music really makes the  people come together as Madonna sang way back in 2000.

The air you breathe is in fact that of celebration, carefreeness and freedom.

Extravagant and sunny, Kalnik with her pink guitar and her long blonde hair is the queen of the Party , fascinating mix of  the troublemaking Harley Queen and the perfect human version of  'Barbie Rock n'Roll'.

Big smiles, bodies that move and connect creating that magical synergy that only music can create. 

Star Dance brings you to those summer dawns where you use to live at night and go to bed during the day; where anything can happen, and every stranger could become a friend.

Almost four minutes of cosmic energy where Elvira Kalnik's  charismatic voice and presence is the absolute protagonist.

A simple and well directed video where the beauty of diversity and la joy de vivre are the most important qualities to have in order to be invited.

Rule number three: Dance... until the sunrise!

Socks is a poignant short film about surviving human trafficking, written and produced by Dr. Mary E. Weems and directed by Ashley Aquilla.

Belinda (wonderfully played by Laprise Johnson) is a grown African-American woman who, in the safety of her own home, is recounting the horrifying story of being kidnapped from her mother’s laundromat when she was 8 years old and trafficked to become a sex slave in a very rich — and very white — family.

The film is shot with very long sequences. The short is structured as a very long inner monologue. The writing is excellent, the details of the story are touching and upsetting at the same time.

The title references two things: Belinda’s mom’s obsession with sorting socks at the laundromat and home, and the only garnet she was allowed to wear when in the presence of her masters.

Aquilla’s directing is quite scarce, leaving lots of room for Johnson to express herself through her intense acting. The scarce direction, combined with the simple cinematography, helps create a sense of deep truthfulness. We almost feel like we shouldn’t be there, peeping into Belinda’s home, and listening to her intimate recounting of the most tragic time in her life.

Ultimately, it all comes down to wanting to protect your loved ones. The child wants to protect her mother by complying with her kidnapper, and the mother, creates the safest environment possible for her child to come back to and heal from her trauma.

A dramatic, moving, and no-frills short film full of humanity.

The Interview from Hell is a funny 5-minute short film about working in HR, written by Michael Chabler, directed by Frank A. DeChirico, and produced by Sameeksha L. Katyal.

Tom, played by Chabler, is entering the HR office for an interview for an IT position, but soon after things get a little wacky. The man starts talking about the end of the world and his plan to save civilization. Intrigued and confused, the HR manager Eve, played by Katyal, starts questioning his knowledge of Information Technology, to which Tom replies with a surprising revelation.

The acting is good, very realistic, and almost reminds me of documentaries. The cinematography and the editing also reminisce of reality television, which adds to the plausibility of the film.

The script is funny and very well-paced — which is not that obvious in the case of super short films.  The concept is hilarious and over the top, but if you think about it deeply, who knows how many times people like Tom have interviewed for the most disparate positions, leaving it to the poor HR manager to try and dodge the bullets on behalf of the company?

The short, shot during the pandemic, is very simply produced. Apart from one establishing shot of the office parking lot and a scene in the elevator, the short is shot inside one room, and with only two actors.

This is to prove that once the concept is strong, you don’t need money or special frills to make a good movie!

Office comedy at its best!

My Digital Truth is an animation short under right under 10 minutes written and directed by Swen Werner. The short film navigates the powers of AI and the use of technology, with a philosophical approach.

The short film prefaces that for the writer/director, AI and blockchain are a sort of modern version of the historical figure of homunculus, an artificial, miniature, fully formed human being, able to increase in size and transform into an adult human. Werner explores the “transformation” of AI within the personal sphere of human lives.

The animations look AI-generated, and serve the sole purpose of accompanying the superimposed text, emails, and messages exchanged, at times with himself, and at times with someone else. The music is very soothing and the graphic is well done.

One of the questions that this film raises is: is AI alone capable of solving human problems, or will it forever need to be guided by us?

Werner’s work on My Digital Truth started when a few friends recommended he look into ChatGPT as well as alternative healing methods to overcome a strange illness, and the question at the end of the film sums it all up: will technology ever be able to fully replace human friendship and kindness?

The short leads us to think that no, it won’t. And I truly hope Werner’s right!

Cabaret Cuba is a 68-minute documentary film written and directed by Czech-Swiss-born award-winning filmmaker Madeleine Duba about the most prominent figures of the Carnival scene of El Tropicana Night Club in Havana, Cuba, during the ’50s.

The famous club — which opened on December 30, 1939, at the Villa Mina in Marianao and which claimed to be the largest and most beautiful nightclub in the world — was home to an extended and acclaimed Cuban dance scene, featuring hundreds of dancers, choreographers, musicians and singers. The film shows how the unfortunate decline of the traditional art of the Cabaret impacts the lives of all the people who dedicated their lives (and souls) to the art.

Through her documentary, Duba was able to perfectly convey the passion of every single one of the people who revolved around El Tropicana. Cabaret dance is almost not a dance anymore, but a life commitment — choreographers in their 60s, and 70s swearing to dance until they draw their last breath.

The documentary is wonderful at showing the power in the movements, the dances, the music, and the people behind the performances. The colors and the costumes are so captivating, that it’s impossible to imagine how such art can slowly become forgotten, with many of the biggest clubs in La Havana having closed with time.

The urge of those people to perform, to dance, to teach, and their work to make sure the art doesn't become obsolete is as palpable as the chiffon on the dancer’s headpieces and skirts, and as striking as the sound of the salsa beat.

The documentary is enlightening and entertaining, as it deeply transports the viewers to the mid-’50s in La Havana, bringing us the smells of cigars and rum, making our pulse vibrate to the rhythms of Cuban congas, and giving us a true sense of the importance of Cabaret in Cuban culture, both for the people who live there and for foreigners to learn when they visit.

A film that will definitely spark la Fiebre de sábado por la noche in each of us!

The S.S. Robin is a coming-of-age/family script written by Camille DeBiase (author of the children's book Bert the Runner Duck Runs the New York City Marathon). It revolves around an Italian-American family, the DeLucas, who welcome little Robin, a 3-year-old black/Hispanic foster girl.

The script takes place in a south neighborhood in Brooklyn, Sunset Park, in the 70’s. The entire neighborhood is made of people of Italian and Irish descent (two of the oldest immigration groups that appeared in New York in the late 1800s and up to the end of WWII), and despite the appearances of inclusiveness and acceptance, it’s full of people who stare, talk and judge.

The story spans 18 months, as the DeLuca family learns how to deal with the struggles of being a multiracial family in a very white, catholic neighborhood in a time where multiculturalism within a single family was rare and even frowned upon. In fact, in the history of the Western world, it's difficult enough for an immigrant family to fit into the society it’s migrating to, so adding another component to its fabric is a one-of-a-kind situation.

And this is what the DeLuca family is: one of a kind.

Mom Rosie is a force of nature, her love and dedication to her family are the glue of the bunch. Dad Gianni is a typical middle-class father, he has a woodworking teaching job at a high school in Harlem, he is obsessed with the Yankees, and is generally dedicated to his children and wife. The three kids Johnny, Christopher, and Anna have a deep and loving relationship with their parents, who, despite the times, did everything in their power to raise them as empowered and independent as possible. It's nice to see the four kids grow up as we read, they mature individually and develop the relationships between themselves.

All the dialogues are written with a strong Italian American accent, and the details seem very realistic. DeBiase, who is probably a second/third-generation Italian-American herself, must have been raised in those very same neighborhoods as the script is full of visual descriptives and details.

One thing that could have been nice to explore is if there had been more obstacles within the core family. Both the original family and Robin are very quick to adjust to the changes, but in so doing we lose a bit of Robin’s traumatic past.

The overall writing however is absolutely beautiful, the script is very touching and the story of this little girl the family of five falls in love with is endearing. The story arcs are perfectly developed and the script features enough drama and pathos to get the audience glued to their screens.

A beautiful family story about social acceptance, self-acceptance, and the importance of family love. Very well done!

Pretu Funguli is a documentary written by Monica Musoni, who co-directed it with Costa Valente. The 55-minute film is based on Guinean visual artist Nú Barreto, who lives and works between Brazil and Paris.

Guinea-Bissau-born artist Barreto explains the origin of his art, which draws inspiration from the expression Pretu Funguli, an old Creole expression, originally used in a discriminatory manner, to describe everything that is out of the ordinary. Funguli — an intellectual state where people are behaving differently from what is considered standard — is here compared to a body not being in its original and normal state.

The artist works through different artistic mediums, with most of his work starting by photographing the people he meets, listening to their stories, and capturing their essence. All that is then combined in a sort of collage to create his big art pieces.

The artworks of Barreto are imbued with social criticism, denunciation of the homogenization of the individuals, and the flattening of diversities. With his art, Barreto explores, among other things, the social consequence of living in a constant state of political tension, conflicts, and wars.

The documentary is fascinating, especially from a cultural point of view. We see very clearly the different cultures affecting Barreto’s work, from the Guinean, to the Brazilian, to the French one.

The cinematography is gorgeous and enhances very well the colors and the folklore of all the cultures depicted, the people, the clothes, the instruments. The music is simultaneously ethereal and rhythmic and carries a light sense of saudade.

An inspirational story about a polyhedric and multicultural artist navigating his life in a society that chastises anything different.