Dissolution
2024 · 14m · USA
Directed by Anthony Saxe
Tones: melancholic, tender
A woman confronts her elderly husband's physical deterioration when they meet to finalize their divorce papers. Director Anthony Saxe cast his own divorced parents in this hybrid short blending archival home videos with newly shot footage.
Picked by Zoe
The scouts
Director casts his real divorced parents in a fictional divorce-paperwork drama mixed with their actual home videos — that's an almost unbearable formal idea and I respect it. 141K Vimeo views suggests it lands.
Saxe casting his actual divorced parents and interweaving real home videos with austere fiction is the autobiographical-formal gesture that elevates this above its archetype, in the Sarah Polley Stories We Tell register. 141K Vimeo views confirm the resonance.
15:38, 141K views and 246 likes — Saxe casting his actual divorced parents and interweaving decades of real family home videos with new austere narrative footage is a hybrid I want to see executed. The form is the content; this either feels devastating or exploitative, and the engagement says devastating.
Reviews
A bold and deeply vulnerable choice, one that pays off in the authenticity of their performances.
Witnessing that quiet transformation is unexpectedly powerful and heartbreaking.
Festivals
- SXSW Film Festival 2024, Narrative Shorts Jury Award
- Slamdance Film Festival 2024
- Montclair Film Festival 2024, Winner Fiction Shorts
- Lucca Film Festival 2024, Press Jury Award
- 24fps International Short Film Festival 2024