Carla L Chasco, writer, Argentina

I am Keren

Constantly forming a self. How do we do it? We are constantly defining ourselves, everything requires a presentation, a statement. And it is never enough. Everyone is better, everyone has already surpassed us in something. There is always a goal we can’t achieve. Keren Chen brings another possibility. Maybe there are other ways to tell the story of who we are.

Since Then

 “I pray every night that I see better days” the first verse starts. And there are definitely better times for the kids at the Blue Ridge Juvenile Detention Center. An exorcism in the form of a beautifully moving film, transforming a difficult time into an expression of the things these kids are going through. The rhythm of the music and editing combined in a delicate and dedicated composition. Hopefully, this group keeps bringing us their art. 

Unacceptable

We may tend to think we have surpassed all of these issues, but still acceptance doesn't always come so easy. Old values are still around. Imperatives are engrained and the effects are hard to wear off. How does this clash with the anxious and determined youth that thinks all battles are won? The in-between is something to navigate, the acceptance of the unresolved. There is a way, tender as the pink that colors this film.

Everybody’s Business

The body is formed by words, other people's words. Everyone talks and opinions get stuck in every organ, every limb. Advice, critiques, advertisings. Speech forms the limits of the body. Anecdotes, memories, dialogue. Amilieyon Pridgen and Jessica Torres open up in an intimate conversation, personal. A confession about growing up and what it gets to know and define itself. Sometimes with more power, sometimes with less, and sometimes with a few laughs in between.

Le Clown

Classic comedy returns as a sweet balm. To highschool, in the 20s. The two old clowns bring a breeze of fresh air in the always ironic parodic meme culture. The old tricks come anew and the funny physical gags make all the kids watch with attention. They probably get weird not catching any reference but the naivety of this kind of humor is so catchy that nobody can escape the laughs.

From What you Left Behind

There’s a unique bond between two women that dance together under a sunset-covered field. The remembrance of the good times spent together symbolised in ethereal moves that converges in a perfect synergy between the two narratives: music and film. A sensitive longing. Putting together the pieces that are elusive only as memories could be, can be a romantic experience in itself, one that will endure.

Elysium

Journeying into “a world of illusion”, two girls running in prom dresses. escaping from what? looking for what? what is the reality they left? is it any? the borders are not clear and these girls navigate them. The real world, the reality, is composed of the material and the symbolic. Confusing signs and nature is part of it. Narrated by a wells-ish voice over, we are invited to accompany this dream state where we can access, not answers but truest questions about reality and the illusions that form it.

Coma

A librating of despair in between worlds. A nightmarish dream state where fears arise. This is an immersive experience that engages the spectator in the most intimate way, keeping it on the edge as the story unfolds and the eyes get bigger. The tension built is relieved only when the experience sets and we can understand, only logically, what the character is going through. But we have felt it all.