Banks Helfrich and Tisse Mallon present independent local films in real, live living rooms. Living Room Screening events go beyond movie night and into a shared experience which includes the film, the creator and the reflections and thoughts of the audience.
This evening’s intimate experience consisted of a number of short films and a conversation with the creators.

Having just finished editing “Finger on the Pulse“, I sent Tisse and Banks a Facebook messages asking if the short was a good fit for then Living room Theater Shorts program. Amazingly my last minute submission squeaked into the lineup.

Filmmakers included.

Ariel Zengotita
Kevin O’Neill
Rokaya Mikhailenko
Logan Anderson
Ferio Dismo

  My film, “Finger on the Pulse” began and the room fell silent.
You could hear a pin drop. I thought something might be wrong. When the
credits rolled there was an unexpected thunderous applause. In the talk
back I described my experience showing the 49 portraits at the Orlando Science Center,
and once again I choked up when I described how one victim’s sister
reacted when she saw the exhibit. I was advised to Show the film at the Enzian Film Slam and the Global Peace Film Festival. I need to clean up the edit and burn it to DVD to make those submissions.

My favorite film was titled “Lean” by director Kevin O’Neill. In that film, actor Dennis Neil sat in a rocking chair on to porch of a weathered southern cabin. He held a tiny music box and the camera zoomed in o his face as he remembered his past. The flash back scene was saturated white in a southern school room. A pretty girl with blond curls pay full glances back at the boy as they both do their school work. She places the music box on his desk. Later, he is helping her with her homework and their fingers touch above the school book. A storm breaks out and they run outside to dance in the rain. I felt uncomfortable. with a black boy and white girl playing together in the south, things couldn’t end well. The boy sits down in the mud and the girl follows suit. His white shirt and her white dress are soon playfully covered in mud. He reaches out to hold her beautiful curls and then they hold hands. Just then the girls mom drives up and she drags her daughter away. We flash back to the present and Dennis goes inside the cabin and hands the music box to a woman in bed. She looks sick but has the same beautiful blond hair. The moral is that love sees no color. I loved the film.

Other films included a toy car that acted like a caterpillar and built a cocoon to become an airplane, by Ariel Zengotita. A poetic southern travelogue by Logan Anderson, A quirky film about science and perception by Ferio Dismo, and a hot Flamenco dance piece that followed the dancer’sromance, motherhood, and ultimately her husband’ death by Rokaya Mikhailenko.