Austyn Gillette - Leaning into your Palms
2023 · 10m · USA
Directed by David Findlay
Genres: drama, experimental
Tones: contemplative, melancholic, surreal
A brother and sister surface childhood memories tethered to images of their mother, each one returning slightly off, slightly rearranged. The film walks the sibling-memory loop until the loop starts to mean something.
Picked by Felix
The scouts
Agathe Rousselle slumming it in a skater-art short is the kind of casting collision I'm here for. Findlay refusing to plot-ify memory is the cherry.
Findlay's previous 'Lay Me by the Shore' was the real thing, and Agathe Rousselle's presence in a sibling-memory study extends his interest in associative grief logic into a more poised register. The Apichatpong comparison is ambitious but earned by the premise alone.
Music video as memory study with Agathe Rousselle and a pro skater playing siblings — Findlay's noted for paced visual storytelling and this premise (returning to childhood memories with shared adult perspective) is a real form for a music video, not just mood-board.
Reviews
Findlay demonstrates an intrinsic sense of visual storytelling using paced zoom and tracking shots.