RIFF - Parker Sealy

I was able to see the Passage Block on Friday. I liked most of the shorts but I think my favorite two were probably Birthday and Mamanek. Birthday is about the death of a child and the mother’s grieving. There were no lines and yet you knew exactly what was going on. I really liked the gray colors. On some of the shorts, it wasn’t very pleasing to the eye yet in Birthday, it was. It was dark and cold and you could feel the pain that the mother was going through. In the scenes that were cold and dark, the only bright things were the daffodils on the table. It is almost like they offered a spark of hope, as in a sign that healing is to come. It was cool because the director was at the showing so we got a chance to hear what prompted him to do this short. He was inspired by the concept. It was intriguing to him so he decided to explore it more. It wasn’t until a friend went through a similar situation. It then became more real to him. It was interesting listening to a director explain how he came up with his concept while also explaining the process of making such a film.

The second short that I really enjoyed was Mamanek, which translated to Mama’s Boy. I enjoyed this mainly because the kid was so cute. He did a really good job at going from being a mama’s boy to trying to rebel by essentially stalking this older woman. It was interesting but also pretty routine. This idea is not a new concept. A young boy wants to be seen as cooler by his peers so he begins to drink and smoke and try to get his mom off his case and act as if he doesn’t care. This kind of thing happens all the time but I feel as if they made it new without having to really make a new concept. I didn’t feel like I had seen it before which is always good for an artist to accomplish this.

Overall, I thoroughly enjoyed the shorts that I chose to go see. While they were about sad situations, it was still interesting to watch. It is amazing what people can put into a 10-20 minute short.