The Pulse of Chlorine in Your Eyes

 

Lately, in order to feed a particular writing project A and I will return to soon,  I've been steeping in the intersection of writing and the condensed emotion of film shorts. It has continued to blow my mind how filmmakers are able to create worlds and depth and impact in the span of less-than-25-ish-minutes (sometimes as few as 6). When I think back on shorts that I have watched over the years, such a disproportionate number of them are engraved into my memory because of their economic use of image, tone, movement, and writing. 

Tonight after a high-speed day slowed into a cool evening, I settled in to watch an 18-minute long short entitled Barbie Blues (2011) by Adi Kutner. The film, in my understanding, was originally made as part of a BA program at Tel Aviv University and ended up having a nomination at Sundance for International Fiction, as well as another nomination in the Jerusalem Film Festival. 

In truth, I had only read the first sentence of the description of the film. It read: When Mika, a suburban teenager, finds a disturbing creature in her pool, she asks her new friendly neighbor Gershon for help. I didn't bother to read the rest of the description. I figured, cool. A film that has some sort of sci-fi vibe to it in which a girl and her neighbor deal with a mysterious creature that has turned up in her pool. 

What actually ensued was my body and mind starting to tense about 180 seconds into the film. I started to realize that, perhaps, there would be no sci-fi element to the film.  During the18 minutes of the film, I was able to feel the oddest sensations in my body and mind. Clenching, bracing, not-quite-releasing-but-not-quite-not-releasing. My breath held then released; shallow then deep. There was something reassuring in knowing that whatever I felt, it would not last longer than 18 minutes as the story unfolded. 

Now? I keep thinking about the film. The last few lines that are spoken. Who says them. What is said. How the story is told without being said, exactly. Mostly, I can't stop thinking about what I felt in my body and mind during the film.  

I can't say that I would recommend the film, nor would I advise against it exactly. I'll just say that if you happen to see it, or if you choose to see it (it is available on Vimeo, Kanopy and the like), pay detailed attention to your body and tell me later 

what it said. 

 

be well; be loved,

 

k.  

 

[Photo credit: Jamie Street]