Everything's Fine
2023 · 14m · USA
Directed by Christina Hulen
Tones: dark, melancholic, tense
A young teacher and sole survivor of a school shooting battles trauma-induced memory loss; as the anniversary of the event approaches, her carefully maintained sense of normalcy unravels, threatening her marriage and her life.
Picked by Zoe
The scouts
This could've been another well-intentioned trauma drama, all fractured edits and shaky cam—instead Hulen commits entirely to sound as the architecture of memory loss, which is genuinely unsettling in a way most PTSD narratives aren't brave enough to attempt.
The sound design situates itself deliberately within the lineage of psychologically sophisticated cinema, evoking the formal restraint of modernist trauma narratives while maintaining accessibility; a film that knows exactly what it's doing with the viewer's attention.
The decision to render flashbacks as pure sonic events rather than visual spectacle is the hinge that makes everything work—it forces the viewer into the protagonist's fractured sensory experience and transforms a 14-minute runtime into something that feels architecturally precise and emotionally devastating.
Reviews
An extraordinary post sound team that managed to not only clean up troublesome areas, but design sound FX that helped drive and set the tone for the flashbacks.
Selected to screen at Oscar and BAFTA qualifying film festivals internationally, garnering 14 Jury Awards to date.
Festivals
- WILDsound Festival 2023, Best Sound and Music