Tape
2020 · 13m · USA
Directed by Jojo Erholtz
Tones: contemplative, melancholic, tense
A 16-year-old ice hockey player on an all-girls high school team tries to repair her fractured relationship with a teammate after her same-sex feelings have become known within the group, navigating social exclusion and longing in the lead-up to a prequalifying game.
Picked by Zoe
The scouts
Closeted hockey player and her teammate, physical-padding-as-emotional-barrier visual logic. The blocking-as-metaphor idea is genuinely smart even if 'queer-sports-coming-of-age' has worn a deep groove.
Erholtz uses padding, helmets, and rink barriers as literal and metaphorical obstacles — the camera positioning isolation viscerally. The Pariah comparison is reaching, but the formal commitment to embodied longing is real.
Padding, helmets, and the cold rink as literal-and-metaphorical barriers with the camera consistently positioning obstacles between the protagonist and her teammate — that's blocking-as-psychology and the right craft response to ice hockey's specific physicality. Real team adds authenticity.
Reviews
Subverts expectations with its impressive and poignant emotional portrait of a teenage hockey player and how frozen out she feels when she can't talk to one of her teammates.
Festivals
- Palm Springs International ShortFest 2020, Special Mention
- Outfest Los Angeles 2020, Special Mention
- Hamptons International Film Festival 2020
- Austin Film Festival 2020
- Helsinki International Film Festival 2020