(rough cut)
2017 · 3m · Canada
Directed by Sidney Leeder
Genres: drama
Tones: provocative, tense
A director pressures an actress into full nudity on the morning of her first sex scene.
Picked by Felix
The scouts
Most films about power imbalance on set feel like PSAs; this one actually *is* the negotiation, which means it trusts the audience to feel the trap closing in real time—subversive because it refuses to explain itself.
The dual authorship (director-cinematographer partnership with performer-writer) recalls the self-reflexive essay films of the '70s; the formal restraint of a two-minute real-time scene becomes a statement about cinema's structural complicity.
The genius move is the stillness—in a 120-second scene about violation of bodily autonomy, the camera refuses to move or sensationalize, which means every micro-expression from the actress becomes the entire weight of the film, and suddenly two minutes feels like an interrogation.
Reviews
An extremely powerful and effective film looking to shed a little light on the disconcerting politics that can occur on a film set.
Festivals
- Toronto International Film Festival (Short Cuts) 2016