Are They Smiling?
From the Archives
•
09-Oct-2020
A young woman decides to carry on the family tradition of attending the county fair, this time with her dead parents. Kate Jean Hollowell directs and stars in “Are They Smiling?” a comedy about an unusual grieving process: spending the day alone at a fair carrying the ashes of your dearly departed. We learn who’s in the urn when she approaches a caricature artist, “can you paint me and my parents?” Before that, she’s just wandering around making small talk with strangers, playing games, riding rides, rolling around in a human hamster ball. And having imaginary conversations with her folks — at a monster truck show, she imagines her mother being worried for the driver’s safety (“mom, it’s fine, I’m sure he has health care”), and earlier she assures, “I’ll find someone soon; see, that guy is looking at me.” Indeed she does meet someone soon, a mustached man who’s also alone, also carrying an urn, and they hit it off. Just watching Hollowell move through the fair is engrossing, but there are some real laugh out loud moments as well (i.e. she lines up for a picture with a dinosaur only to remember there’s no one there to snap the photo), and it’s brought home with a charming final dance sequence. Cast: Kate Jean Hollowell, Max Baumgarten.
Up Next in From the Archives
-
I Would Never Fuck You
Ira prepares to confront an unrequited crush by practicing with miniature figurines. Mika Lungulov-Klotz and Alanna Murray direct “I Would Never Fuck You,” a poignant account of tricky romantic pursuits, which stars an ensemble of older gentleman cast as young women. Ira tinkers with handmade fig...
-
The 15
A portrait of a young woman on the day of her Quinceñera in Los Angeles. Austin Spies directs “The 15,” a vérité style documentary that observes scenes and moments from a teenager's 15th birthday celebration. Sasha Sanchez sits in the chair of a beauty salon receiving touch ups for the big evenin...
-
The Oak Tree
On her 80th birthday, a woman moves through time to meet younger versions of herself. “The Oak Tree,” directed by Yuliya Antonova, is a deep rumination on big, unanswerable questions that transports with dreamy visuals and an ethereal soundscape. A family gathers around a birthday cake to sing th...
