What I See When I Look
2021 · 13m · USA
Directed by Lindsay Calleran
Genres: drama
Tones: contemplative, surreal
Two sisters spend a winter day together, filtered through the subjective perception of the younger sister Ashley — a quiet, unsentimental portrait of family tension, unspoken emotion, and formative memory.
Picked by Margot
The scouts
Long-lens roaming-camera quiet portrait of two sisters' winter day — this is the platonic ideal of MFA shorts: technically defensible, emotionally muffled. Pass.
A roaming long-lens docustyle camera placing the viewer inside a younger sister's incomplete perception — the formal approach is the right instinct for subjective childhood memory. Quiet and considered.
Thirteen minutes using a roaming long-lens camera and subjective docustyle photography to inhabit the younger sister's incomplete perception — that camera-grammar choice is the entire formal premise. Quiet portraits depend on it being executed precisely; the page summary doesn't confirm whether it is.
Reviews
The sound design in the film is quite impressive in this regard, as it works with the visuals to recreate this sense of remembrance.
Their on-screen chemistry is incredibly authentic and heavily charged, echoing the underlying tensions within the family.
Festivals
- Sun Valley Film Festival 2021, Best Short Film
- Palm Springs International ShortFest 2021
- Indie Memphis Film Festival 2021