This year, amongst the various features being screened stand two distinct movies which embrace the free-flowing, experimental drive that Hollywood’s mainstream movies often lack.
Piledriver, a love story of the young, reckless, and possibly alcoholic, showcases those who appear normal for the most part, but who also succumb to lethargic ways. Shot five years ago by film director and former musician, Calvin Lee Reeder, the 14-minute short interlaces a complex storyline with tone heavy music previously recorded by Reeder’s band, The Intelligence, setting an unprecedented mood for viewers.
“I used the music from the band because it was free. I also feel those recordings are tone heavy, something I try to bring to all my films,” Reeder explains. “I feel the audience will take away from Piledriver whatever they want, there’s no wrong way of watching this movie. It is many different things, I hope people talk about it,” he adds.
Another star of the festival is You Won’t Miss Me which, according to director Russo Young, is a kaleidoscopic film portrait of Shelly Brown, a rebellious 23-year-old who has recently been released from a psychiatric hospital, played by actress Stella Shnabel. Painting a picture of a defiant nonconformist in the contemporary world, Young sought to emphasize the experiences and problems of Shelly, experiences which haunt the viewer long after the film has ended.
“I’ve always been interested in archetypes and cinematic characters that are human and feel authentically real. When I was a kid, the films that stayed with me the most were the ones where the character seemed to live on beyond the actual movie. Sometimes I’d be sad when the movie was over and then imagine hanging out with someone like the scarecrow from The Wizard of Oz. When embarking on You Won’t Miss Me, my mission was to make a character that would live on beyond the confines of the eighty-one minute movie,” Young explains.
“Shelly’s inner thoughts are part of the experience of watching You Won’t Miss Me. The film juxtaposes how she digests the world (often with extraordinary insight and truth) with how she behaves in public (at times angry and cruel),” she adds. “The actors exceeded my expectations. You Won’t Miss Me was very much a collaborative effort, I relied on my actors to bring their own set of ideas to the role and let their thoughts help shape the character. Before we had a script, we had the character,” she explains.
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