Johanne Chagnon's beautiful vision lands at the Milan Gold Award Festival with a 14 - minute short movie called UNHEARTH THE LANDSCAPE.
As the title suggests, this experimental movie plays with creation and disintegration, where the human body and the landscape that surrounds and embraces it become one.
Decay alternates with birth. And the process goes on through a constant overlap of images.
Her body appears and disappears (or better arises and dies) within the ground, the materials, the nature.
The images and the sequences remind us of the moon's surface and its first interaction with the human body. It looks like a virgin space and Chagnon a newborn that has to test the area, the distance, in a respectful relationship and not in a violent takeover act.
The overlap keeps going until the human body takes the sea in the last act of communion with nature and slowly disappears within it, surrounded by silence and a fast-forwarded dance of waves.
Many meanings are hidden behind this short movie, which shows Chagnon's deep love for experimental works.
But the relationship between human beings and nature is explicit, and it makes the film very up-to-date with one of the most sensitive subjects of our current time.
CASCADIA - REVIEW
We had the chance to read the script CASCADIA by Tim Millette, and we are glad we did.
Theme and subject are very well defined, and that is what usually makes a script a great one.
The structure is strong and tidy, showing a good knowledge of screenwriting tools. Characters have strong personality and they are well placed in the story and in the relationships between each other.
Millette also paid great attention to the dialogues, that are never obvious.
The pace is good, and it helps the reader be focused throughout the entire script. The themes of love, science, and nature, combine in this script and the atmospheres coming straight from the nineties, which is when the story takes place, make it original and deliver a touch of mystery that is worth of some of the best movies shot in the 90s.
Last but not least, the structure respects completely the rules of screenwriting but at the same time, actions and transitions are written in a “novel” style form, with great attention paid to details. This makes the reading experience as pleasant as reading a book, which is the highest goal that every screenwriter should aim to.
CLIMB is a 52 minutes long documentary by Neil Myers that tells his personal story as a triathlon athlete, a story of determination and willpower that led him to achieve his goal despite a brutal accident.
Needless to say, an athlete's journey is metaphorically parallel to the hero's journey in fiction. In this case, thanks to an excellent photograph and a voice-over worthy of the best actors (Neil Myers himself), the first three minutes of the first act are already enough to prove it. As a matter of fact, the story heralds suspense and a climax worthy of the best fictional scripts.
The documentary is presented in small chapters: introduction, accident, operation, and post-operation. Then it comes moral and physical effort to return to climbing and the struggle to not fall into the (unfortunately super common) trap of opioids.
Furthermore, to enrich the story, the second protagonist: triathlon. Which is different from other sports. Its beauty recalls the metaphor of life, in which even if you fight alone, in reality, you are not, and your sweat, fatigue, and passion is that of your group, of those that fight on your same side.
It's a personal story but visually told with a professionalism worthy of the best productions.
A story told with love through sharp images and montage and a neat and clean script.
The title, representative of the athlete's activity but perhaps above all of his metaphorical experience, is a perfect choice.
CLIMB is an excellent product that deserves to be shared. It's always enjoyable to know a story that can be everyone's story.
And it reminds us that after the climb, there will always be a descent.