Sunday, September 28, 2014

Student Film: Light of the World

This summer, I worked at a leadership conference for high schoolers, and one of my students, Margo Cummins, directed a short film with the help of her peers. What can I say Margo? You never cease to surprise me.

The movie is called Light of the World, and it's quite a promising achievement when you realize less than a dozen teenagers were responsible for writing, scoring, directing, and acting for the movie. The story centers on talented teenager Elaine (finely portrayed by Remy Joslin). Elaine excels at art, impressing her friends, but disappointing her skeptical mother. Honestly, she's like the worst parent ever. Elaine's mom is a pessimistic, demanding, dream-crushing woman who should have her custody rights revoked by CPS, especially taking into account how her actions affected the film's ending. 

Elaine plans on spending the summer at art camp, but her mother has other, more realistic plans - a leadership camp (horrible idea, isn't it?). Elaine's father never shows any inclination of standing up for his daughter, and although she and all her friends know her mother is wrong, Elaine can't seem to go her own way while faced with the adversity of the woman who is supposed to love her most.

The movie's far from perfect, but hey, it's still noteworthy when considering the constraints the young filmmakers had, and when the faults did show up, they were overshadowed by the direction, surprisingly phenomenal cinematography, and believable sense of realism the film had. 

You might not believe that these teens seem to have such a solid grasp on the difficulties of life, but their short film seems to prove otherwise, showing an understanding of cinema's classic motif of action-and-reaction, stretching all the way to years after the first day the story takes place. Hopefully, this film can be the stepping stone these young artists need to take them to bigger success. Well done, guys!

Rating: 4/5

You can watch Light of the World here.


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