Brendan Prost’s short film Heavy Petting is an eerie bifurcated character drama about a queer encounter between two lonely cat enthusiasts. Whilst this may sound whimsical on paper, Prost’s film is anything but as he uses this conceit as a means of playing with the tone and structure of his short to create something strange and unique. To achieve such a looseness in genre is impressive and that’s down to the cohesion of each of the film’s elements; the consistent yet slyly evolving cinematography, the intimate performances by Haley Midgette and Sam Calleja, as Marina and Jordan respectively, and the shifting sonic palette which underpins as it unfolds. Dn is proud to premiere Heavy Petting on our pages today and are joined by Prost who unpacks the craft behind the compelling emotional journey he wanted to take the audience on.
What motivated you to make a queer character drama?...
What motivated you to make a queer character drama?...
- 11/24/2022
- by James Maitre
- Directors Notes
Fine performances by the female leads aren’t enough to rescue this amateurish, low-budget film that hits all the wrong notes
This low-budget Canadian feature has its heart in the right place with a gentle story about folk-singing hippy lovers who part and then find each other again years later. Alas, the production values suggest the crew must have been either interns or working for beer and craft table leftovers. Maybe it’s the jarring disconnect between the TV soap-quality of the digital cinematography and the late 1960s setting – the latter just looks wrong on this kind of stock. The disjunction is made even worse by the addition of black-and-white archive footage from the time, showing long-haired youngsters hanging out in Yorkville, then an unincorporated village outside Toronto and home to folk clubs and American draft dodgers. Either way, it feels amateurish, although Lisa Kovack and Haley Midgette, who respectively...
This low-budget Canadian feature has its heart in the right place with a gentle story about folk-singing hippy lovers who part and then find each other again years later. Alas, the production values suggest the crew must have been either interns or working for beer and craft table leftovers. Maybe it’s the jarring disconnect between the TV soap-quality of the digital cinematography and the late 1960s setting – the latter just looks wrong on this kind of stock. The disjunction is made even worse by the addition of black-and-white archive footage from the time, showing long-haired youngsters hanging out in Yorkville, then an unincorporated village outside Toronto and home to folk clubs and American draft dodgers. Either way, it feels amateurish, although Lisa Kovack and Haley Midgette, who respectively...
- 8/9/2022
- by Leslie Felperin
- The Guardian - Film News
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