Being able to showcase up and coming filmmakers with new and brilliant ideas is something really special, and with the backing of Indeed, this has become a more regular occurrence. For the last few years, the company has helped sponsor and present select films as part of their Rising Voices series, which has released three seasons worth of marvelous projects. With their support, more individual and unheard voices can get their films seen, and the messages in them heard by a much wider audience, something that is worth giving thanks for. And one way to do that is to highlight a few films from the most recent season, which is why we’re putting the spotlight on four amazing films from Season 3 of Rising Voices. Please make sure to check out these films, as well as the others that are a part of this dynamic and wonderful showcase of films at the Rising Voices website. With all that said, here are the films! We hope you enjoy.
Last Days Of The Lab – Alex Felix and Arianna Ortiz star in this Maria Alvarez film that is a beautiful and bittersweet look at a family as they navigate loss, and becoming closer as they work through it. During the last days of their family photo lab, daughter Isabel (Felix) finds an old camcorder owned by her late father, containing some old home movies. Already feeling his loss, Isabel and her mother Lucia (Ortiz) revisit memories, feeling both the loss of the man himself, as well as the last days of the shop he founded, which is now also being lost. It’s beautiful, and the chemistry between Felix and Ortiz is incredible, really making this film, focused so much on family and relationships, really feel genuine an
Maria Alvarez shows the last days of a fading industry in this film that sees Alex Felix and Arianna Ortiz star as a Isabel (Felix) and Lucia (Ortiz), a mother and daughter who are packing up the remnants of the family photo lab that they ran as a business. With a change in the way photos are created and maintained, along with the still-lingering loss of the family patriarch, these two have to deal with mourning on two fronts, the wounds of losing the person whose passion got them to the point where they could have a business like this, and now losing the business itself. While they are finishing the task of clearing out the shop, Isabel’s discovery of an old family video on a forgotten camera force them to confront their combined loss again, as well as relive old memories that are now bittersweet, but ones that bring them closer together.
Felix and Ortiz are both excellent in this, as their chemistry makes the film feel real and this world lived in. It’s a sweet but painful film that really combines grief with the changing world in ways that make it a unique watch.
My Nights Glow Yellow – Writer/director Hannah Bang brings us a look into the future of socialization, to a time where not only is dating on apps, but friendship can be as well. Platony is a popular app that links people for platonic relationships, allowing them to have time around others for a fee. The reasons for this are individual, but through this film, we get a look into several as we follow Kacie, a woman who acts as a companion for others through the service. Kacie (Michelle Mao) is seen with several clients, the most prominent of which in the film is Michael (Matt McGorry), who joins him for dinner once a week. Her schedule is interrupted, though, when she sees Michael outside of their sessions, accepting a ride from him in a small act of kindness that serves as a way to ramp up the unspoken tension in a film at really builds slowly until it knocks you out with a gut punch at the end. Without giving away that ending, this is a film that really brings you into this world as we watch Kacie’s life unfold through her interactions with others, and at times, on her own. It’s a beautiful film that honestly needs to be seen several times, only because in looking back, there is so much context that only makes sense once you’ve gotten to the end and start again.
Mao is excellent in the film, carrying it with pathos and a quiet emotional core that makes her both hard to read at times (something it seems like she would need for her job, in order to not mislead clients) and extremely vulnerable, sometimes in the consecutive moments. Along with McGorry, we see the other people Kacie interacts with, with a delightful cast including Yvette Lu, Hideotshi Imura, and Michael James Wong.
The Ballad of Tita and the Machines – Miguel Angel Caballero directs and co-writes this delightful film, alongside Luis Antonio Aldana, that focuses on Tita, a worker in a strawberry field during an era where automation and machine learning has become quite a bit more advanced than what we see now. With her and her co-workers under constant supervision, even having to use a machine that scans their bodies to predict work efficiency, Tita (Laura Patalano) finds herself barred from work as her age and the onset of arthritis gives the algorithm inside the machine the impression that she won’t be effective enough at her work to do the job properly. This message of automation and technologic advances replacing the need for human labor is one being had in many spaces, and picking fruit (something deemed “unskilled”, despite the effort needed to do it) is one of the professions likeliest to be automated sooner, rather than later. So much so that in this film, the company that employs Tita sees fit to replace her with an android replacement to do her job for her, at a reduced salary for her. The rest of the film is a firm affirmation of the human spirit and the dedication to doing something you enjoy, as the androids simply cannot withstand the rigors of the job, much to the dismay of the company. It’s a beautiful film that shows Tita as one of the many cogs in machines like this, but gives us the personal touch of seeing her life outside of work as a parent, a widow whose wife seems to have passed, and of a person of values, both in and outside of her work.
Patalano is simply incredible in this, giving Tita a personality that is both relatable and determined. Her attitude towards those looking to replace her is incredible, and should be a shining light for people whose work is looking to be phased out by greedy corporations such as the one in this film, especially fields that exploit the labor of people of color, such as this one, whose workforce seems to be comprised entirely of Mexican-Americans and people of Latin descent.
Sarajin – Jongman Kim stars in this film that focuses on man’s relationship with the changing world as Kim stars as Dongsu, a Korean immigrant living with his family in Alaska, where he plies his trade on a fishing boat, caching crab to sell at a fishery. As the effects of the climate and the change in water temperature continues, Dongsu has to make a significant life choice for himself and his family when the very creatures that allowed him to make a living are no longer there. Director Justin Kim Woosok, who co-wrote the film with Ki Jin Kim, delivers this message in a way that is simultaneously bold and subdued, as the performance of Kim is one of sorrow and guilt as he attempts to do what he knows, despite it not really being there for him to do, all the while knowing that he may have to leave this life behind to help provide for his family. It’s a beautiful film that has a quiet tension, with Dongsu wanting to remain in Alaska doing the job he knows best, but knowing it may not be a choice he can truly make in the end.
Jongman Kim is a sensational actor, bringing all the pathos and emotion a film like this needs, and bringing it in copious amounts. You can feel his desire to provide, his want to stay, his frustration at not being able to do what he needs to do, and he does it all in a way that really resonates. Castmates Taehee Kim, who plays his wife Jaejong, compliment the starring role of Jongman Kim perfectly as she shares in the emotional toll climate change and the shift in work conditions has on their life, as well as the cultural traditions that cannot be met due to the life they lead in Alaska. This is an incredible film, with a very important message that is done flawlessly, making it a film that really leaves an impact.
That will do it for this special presentation of films! Please be on the lookout for these films, which are a small part of the Indeed Rising Voices series, and can be viewed here! A big thanks to Indeed, to the filmmakers, and to all the cast and crew who worked on these incredible projects for their efforts to bring the world more unique and wonderful creations!
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