2 strangers jump off a building and discover it's never too late to fall in love. | In Passing

Filmmaker Alan Miller tells the story of two lonely strangers who jump off a tower to end their lives. But when they meet in mid-air, time slows down and they discover it's never too late to fall in love.

"In Passing" is Miller's graduate student thesis film at the University of Southern California's School of Cinematic Arts -- and stars David Trice and Dana Lyn Baron.

#short-films #Alan-Miller #Omeleto #suicide with a #difference #🙃

2 young siblings fight a civil war in suburbia. | A Modest Defeat

Two young siblings duke it out for domination in suburbia. Big brother Tommy has the advantage: he's older, bigger and tougher, and he's not afraid to play dirty, whether it's stealing his little sister Tiny's food at dinner or distracting her at a school-wide relay race so that she gets off to a late start.

But Tiny has a plan to level the playing field, one that capitalizes on her smarts, ingenuity and resourcefulness -- and she goes to great lengths to score herself a small but very satisfying victory.

Writer-director David Barr's cheeky, charming family comedy is a study in sibling rivalry, told with a genuine sense of sweetness that never feels too cute or cloying. Told with almost no dialogue, the storytelling nevertheless captures Tiny's world, full of the small but significant indignities that she suffers at the hands of Tommy.

With a lack of dialogue, the film is reliant on good performances to communicate character and emotion. Young performer Sophia Ally plays Tiny, bringing appealing intelligence and nuance to a role that could come across as twee. She's rightfully indignant, hurt and disappointed with how Tommy treats her, but she's also smart, and goes about her plans with a sense of pluck, confidence and patience. Tom Harrison plays her brother with just the right degree of stereotypical big-brother attitude, and his behavior comes across as casually bratty, but never hateful or full of vengeance. This isn't a dysfunctional family, but an archetypal one.

With a measured, gentle narrative pace and deliberate editing -- and backed by an excellently evocative musical score -- the audience watches Tiny research, trial and ultimately execute her ingenuous plan, building to a funny, endearing reveal. Tiny's achievement is not just brilliant in itself, but also in her precocious understanding of strategy. In this particular game of sibling rivalry, winning doesn't happen by being stronger or faster, but in being smarter in finding a different way to the finish line.

Many family-oriented films can err on the side in cuteness, but what works in "A Modest Defeat" is how it recognizes the intensity and seriousness of the emotional life of children, even as its aesthetic decisions elevate the story to the level of a modern fairy tale. Young children in any situation often strive to feel a sense of agency and efficacy, to feel more than pawns of the bigger forces around them. They may not be scientific geniuses like Tiny, but they can rely on inner resources like cleverness, calm and equanimity to eke out the victories that build confidence and self-worth in the long run.

#short-films #Omeleto #David-Barr #sibling-rivalry

A young boy sees his brother get bullied, then transform in a magical way. | My Brother Is a Mermaid

Kuda is a young boy who lives in a desolate coastal town with his older sibling Kai and his single mother. Kuda enjoys a close, loving bond with Kai. They enjoy surfing together and telling each other stories, particularly one about mermaids in the ocean.

But outside their bubble, life is hard for Kai, who is bullied for the feminine aspects of their self-presentation. Kai likes glitter and sequins, and even Kuda sees that Kai's soul is like a mermaid's: otherworldly, poetic, dreamlike and emotive. When the bullying hits a crisis point, Kuda thinks he's lost Kai forever, but the true magic of Kai's soul makes itself seen, despite the ugliness of the world around them.

Writer-director Alfie Dale's deeply affecting dramatic short combines textured, muted social realism with a lovely, evocative fairy tale in poetic, imaginative ways, offering up a story that is about the anchor of unconditional familial love and the full expression of one's self.

The visuals of the film are exceptional, capturing both the gritty desolate beauty of the coast and the lucid, lyrical flights of fancy that characterize Kai's imagination. These gorgeous underwater shots are soulful and evocative; they're beautiful to look at, but they also allow us to experience Kai their own terms, blurring the lines between genders and even between myth and reality, which may be more to the point when it comes to Kai.

The writing and editing, too, have a gentle fluidity, moving between the dramatic events of reality and the deep-dives into imagination. The storytelling is compelling throughout, building character and tension in powerful, gripping scenes that bring us into Kai's worlds, as seen through Kuda's eyes. That framing of innocence and love is important because Kuda seems something fundamental that even his mother cannot: Kai is just different at the deepest level of spirit and soul, which is mermaid-like, sensitive and darkly beautiful.

Young actors Cameron Maydale as Kai and Aidan Broderick as Kuda play the siblings with palpable connection and understated naturalness, forming the film's tender core. And ultimately, this fierce, loyal unconditional love is what pulls Kai out of the darkest depths when life becomes unbearable and threatens to drown them in pain and suffering.

Many films about gender nonconformity focus on the biological and physical, but what makes "My Brother Is a Mermaid" exceptional is how it grounds the audience within Kai's spiritual and emotional experience. Like Kuda, we come to see that Kai's soul is uniquely otherworldly, traversing oceanic realms of fluidity, emotion and imagination with delicacy and glamour, much like the mythical mermaids themselves.

In a world that is drab, ordinary and full of financial and emotional poverty, Kai wants to live on the level of myth and archetype. "My Brother Is a Mermaid" asks us to remember this impulse when we wanted to be fairies, tricksters, superheroes, gods, royalty, demons or angels -- when we wanted to feel and experience something bigger than ourselves, and dare to bring wild imagination into our daily lives.

#short-films #Omeleto #Alfie-Dale #imagination #acceptance #tolerance #inclusion #unconditional-love #gender-nonconformity

A loyal dog helps his master turn sheep's wool into clouds. | After the Rain

#animation #Valerian-Desterne #MyFrenchFilmFestival #films #short-films