Return to Seoul: A Ballad of Anger and Recognition
Bright neon lights shine on Freddie’s face as she is dancing alone through a half-empty bar in Seoul. Even as her body moves frantically, her face seems to have no visible expression. She just rejected the man she was sleeping with. Freddie is also about to break her only meaningful friendship as she tries to…
Magical Realism & Felt Realities of Afro-Pessimism in Atlanta
Atlanta creates atmospheric, felt realities of the everyday violence of anti-Blackness and demonstrates how existence is affected through the bizarre, disorienting, and seemingly impossible within the city. The series primarily makes use of magical realism combined with pockets of hyper-realism to convey the unreality of how these encounters are felt and not just shown or…
Home, Happiness, Microhabitats
Often, I find myself debating alone on a barstool, wondering if I should order a pint of beer or if I should go home. Although home is not the correct word in this context, it is more like a shelter for the night, a nondescript cubicle that fulfills the bare minimum. Where is it that…
Home is where the Fart is: Swiss Army Man
Every person is an island. No matter how big the world seems, no matter how far reaching our stories are, ultimately our lives are insular. Specific, distinct, devoid from others. And sometimes, a person is on an island. That’s where we find Hank (Paul Dano) at the outset of Swiss Army Man (2016, Daniels). A…
John Wick: A Killer’s Natural Habitat
Spoiler/Content Warning: The dog dies. I’ve been looking for an excuse to write about the John Wick franchise for Short Ends, so with the fourth movie hitting theaters later this month, what better way to channel my excitement than by exploring the franchise through this issue’s habitat theme? The first John Wick (2014, dir. Chad…
Rehearsing Uncertainty in The Rehearsal
I’m an overthinker. Oftentimes, I’m distracted by everyday situations. Yesterday’s encounter, where I bumbled my way through ordering a latte, only to get a filter coffee and refused to confront the barista to change my drink. What if I had stood closer to the bar while they were making my drink? What if I said…
Yuri’s Day: Site of Resignation
In the films of Kirill Serebrennikov, space is represented as having a consciousness of its own, where the social and cultural norms of a given environment often render the characters helpless and passive, making them ultimately succumb to the dominant rhetoric. The importance of space is perhaps a result of Serebrennikov’s theatre background, which has…
The Peripheral Habitats and Social Alienation of La Haine
La Haine (EN: Hate) (1995, dir. Matthieu Kassovitz) is a film about habitats as both a physical and sociological space. The space that the characters live represents both a tool of state oppression, as well as a space reclaimed and liberated by the marginalized inhabitants. Fundamentally, La Haine is a tragedy; following three young men…
Put the Knife in your Eye: The Corrupted Habitat of Skinamarink
I have a certain amount of misplaced nostalgia for a specific moment of childhood sickness. Time has since blurred the details, eliding the tangible discomfort and pain in favour of a vague imprint of being young and vulnerable but comforted by the safety of being at home, with my parents taking good care of me.…
In Conversation: Germán Gutiérrez, untouched territories and trustful histories.
Colombia has one of the most complex yet unexplored histories in South America, it is an endeavour of its own just to try to explain in the most stripped-down conversational terms. When I saw Germán Guitiérrez’s documentary: History Will Judge, on RIDM’s programme I knew I had to watch it. It is not every day…
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