Prom Night
2010 · 8m · USA
Directed by Celia Rowlson-Hall, Jae Song
Genres: experimental
Tones: provocative, surreal, theatrical
A solo dancer — Rowlson-Hall herself, bewigged and shape-shifting — inhabits and interrogates the rituals of the American high school prom: the corsages, the balloons, the gym, the slow dances, the sweating. The camera adopts the POV of the absent date, making the viewer complicit in the ceremony.
Picked by Margot
The scouts
Rowlson-Hall's early work has a rawness that her later feature MA polished away — this is a useful document of that formation. The concept is genuinely clever and the commitment is total; the score of 6 is honest, as the film is more calling-card than destination, but it earns its place.
Second-person camera as the absent date is a real formal commitment, and Rowlson-Hall is a serious choreographer — but 595K views and the SXSW seal mean the short has been picked over. Still works.
Celia Rowlson-Hall's strict second-person POV dance short — the camera as the absent prom date makes the viewer complicit in the social performance. SXSW selection, Special Jury Award for the dancing, 595K Vimeo views. Real formal idea, executed.
Festivals
- South by Southwest 2011, Special Jury Award (dancing)
- Rooftop Film Festival 2011