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First, the Recap:
Once coming to life, how do we, or more simply DO we, choose to see ourselves progress when it comes to learning to exist? We could take the easy road, go with the flow, not standing out, but just doing enough to get by while remaining unnoticed. Or, we could make the opposite choice to do anything and everything possible to become something greater, cause a splash, and make people pay attention. It then becomes not just a vane exercise in unfulfilled dreams or unrealized endeavours, but rather something else entirely, always changing, always diversifying, always striving to become something new. It short, it is the essence of this–birth.
Next, my Mind:
As the 2020 Berlin Revolution Film Festival promised with its offerings of “unconventional and experimental arthouse cinema, the concepts expressed within this newest short film effort from director Matthew Lo Re, whose film “2112” I reviewed here from the 2019 Berlin festival, definitely fits the bill with not only its crazy short runtime of only sixty-one seconds but also via a deeply distinctive, alternative, idiosyncratic approach in visual style and execution that befits the building resumé of one equally unorthodox filmmaker–and those shall remain ongoing points of expectation and excellence I forever anticipate from the indie film community.
This time, it literally felt like the Earth was about to be taken over by aliens as the effort begins with something akin to the emergency broadcast system going into effect, our airwaves hijacked by forces well outside our control. But alien invasion it is not, but rather an effect to gain your attention from the start and then submit you to its hyper-quick mix of sound and black and white imagery that encompasses both the digital and the industrial, which is to me a “trademark” style of execution from Lo Re, side of visual presentation and integrated musical art that combine to form the original work we see before us. Watch his films to see what I mean. Easier that way! Plus, what can we interpret from this film? I say there’s conjecture involved for sure. If anything, see it as the mind of an artist who’s growing, emerging, and experimenting.
It’s one of those projects that both makes me wonder what the audience reaction to it was when seeing it during the Festival itself, which is a little harder to gauge as the event had to be online in this day and age of COVID-19 we reside in. Because even within the indie film community, like any other scope of films out there, I would think there might have been some who would try to dismiss it out of hand. We all have our styles and genres we enjoy most, and I very much admit it took me quite a spell to even CONSIDER indie cinema in ANY form. But now that I have, and I therefore hope more and more film lovers do, there is such a blatantly authentic heart and boldness found within the indie film arena that deserves our attention. I feel that way about Lo Re’s work, and why I can now appreciate it, even if I may NOT always necessarily “understand” or “get it”.
Sometimes, it doesn’t require that to find a respect for artists and what they are striving to achieve creatively and beyond. So, in total, “Birth” really does speak to, as Lo Re’s tag line indicates, “a following transmission”. Given what’s presented, it’s more like a definitive statement proclaiming “Stay Tuned!!” for this avant-garde filmmaker’s next evolution.
As always, this is all for your consideration and comment. Until next time, thank you for reading!
