Synopsis
Irish performance artists and theater directors Joe Lawlor and Christine Molloy have created seven interconnected short films, ranging in length from five to seventeen minutes. Each was filmed in a single day, using a cast of non-professionals, in one continuous take. Each displays, in tableaux form, the everyday routines of ordinary people—both hopeful social activists and stubborn loners. In the astonishing black-comedic WHO KILLED BROWN OWL (TFF 2005), for example, a Wellesian tracking shot swoops, dives and twists to give a panoramic view of a lovely London park, where citizens enjoy the splendor of a late summer afternoon…until the camera uncovers victims of accidental violence, or perhaps foul play. Lawlor and Molloy work under the name Desperate Optimists. That’s a splendid description of the tone and theme of this startlingly original overview of the state of the British soul today. –LG (Ireland, 2006, 72m) Preceded by RABBIT (d. Run Wrake, Scotland, 2005, 9m).