(Canada, 16 min.)
Dir. Sherren Lee, Writ. Kathleen Hepburn
Starring: Joanne Boland, Kimberly Laferriere, Jean-Michel Le
Gal, Jimi Shlag
Programme: Short
Cuts 7 (World Premiere)
Who has more right to a child? The father? The mother?
Biology might have something to do with it, suggests the
provocative short Benjamin, which
raises tough questions and rejects easy answers. This film directed by Sherren
Lee, a production of the Canadian Film Centres’ Short Dramatic Film programme,
tackles a very contemporary construction of family that has yet to really find
definition even in our ever-open-minded culture. The film opens with lesbian
couple Della (Joanne Boland) and Sophie (Kimberly Laferriere), both of whom
are enjoying pregnancy for a few brief minutes until Della loses her baby. The
loss of the child becomes especially complicated when the film reveals that the
surviving child, Benjamin, is the son of gay couple Teddy (Jean-Michel Le Gal)
and Cal (Jimi Shlag). Reeling from the loss, Della and Sophie want to reneg on
the deal and drop their friends of their child to save the one in Sophie’s
womb.
Benjamin asks a
troubling question as the women assert that they have more of a right to the unborn
child than the men do. (It goes unsaid, but one assumes that the two men
impregnated the women in a kind of mutual partner-swap to let both couples
receive the child they always wanted.) Strong performances by all four actors
refuse to let the viewer side with either couple, as Lee lets the human drama
simmer with a power that leaves the viewer reeling. The loss the women face is
brutal, especially because one is able to see the physical loss of their child,
but the Benjamin ends by leaving one
shaken by another loss that feels more unfair because a conscious choice
inflicts it. The film, for a second, takes a dangerous risk by suggesting that
one couple does indeed have more of a right over a child than the other does,
but the devastating loss echoed in the final shot shows that a parent-to-be
always carries a baby in his or her heart, even if they don’t physically hold
the child until birth. This powerful drama is a provocative and compelling
study on the way we conceptualize the family.
Rating: ★★★★ (out of ★★★★★)
Rating: ★★★★ (out of ★★★★★)
Benjamin screens:
-Sept. 14 at TIFF Lightbox 4 at 6:45 PM
-Sept. 19 at Scotiabank 11 at 3:45 PM
The Sleepwalker (Sonámbulo)
(Canada, 4 min.)
Dir. Theodore Ushev
Programme: Short Cuts 6 (North American Premiere)
Under the gypsy moon,all things are watching herand she cannot see them.
Get ready for the dreamy rhythms of Theordore Ushev! One of
Canada’s most prolific geniuses in animation, a favourite for Gloria Victoria, returns with the hypnotic short The Sleepwalker. The Sleepwalker brings to the screen a funky interpretation of the
poem Sonámbulo by Federico García Lorca
(read it here)
and like great poetry, it conjures a world of sentiments and feelings with an
inspired mix of syntax and imagery. Ushev’s signature mix of structuralism and
abstraction paints something like a Picasso work as shapes and sounds collide
to make a visual equivalent for The
Sleepwalker that makes the image of a woman longing for a life that eludes
her. Ushev once again displays a masterful use of colour and an even better
hand at structure, grammar, and timing as various shapes swirl to the hypnotic
Balkan beats of the film to create visual poetry and animate the sounds to life.
The Sleeperwalker more of the same
from Ushev, but that’s never a bad thing when his work is always so good.
Rating: ★★★ (out of ★★★★★)
Rating: ★★★ (out of ★★★★★)
The Sleepwalker
screens:
-Sept. 13 at Scotiabank 13 at 9:45 PM
-Sept. 19 at Scotiabank 11 at 9:45 PM
It also screens at the Ottawa International Animation Festival in Short Competition 1 on:
-Wed. Sept. 16 at the ByTowne at 9:15 PM
-Sunday, Sept. 20 at the ByTowne at 1:00 PM
It also screens at the Ottawa International Animation Festival in Short Competition 1 on:
-Wed. Sept. 16 at the ByTowne at 9:15 PM
-Sunday, Sept. 20 at the ByTowne at 1:00 PM
Please visit www.tiff.net for more
information on this year’s festival.
More coverage on this year’s festival can be found here.