2009, 10 minutes, MiniDV/VHS
Directed by Jason Klorfein
Produced by Jacqueline Reyno

Screenings

November 7, 2009 – Dallas Videofest

Opening – Before Departure (Digital Version)

Synopsis

Before Departure is an infantile coming of age movie; its awkward standard-aspect ratio shot compositions and bright cardboard cut out colors imply the liminality of what’s being seen. The characters face rote rituals (birth, sex, elections) that have become perverted through time. Sticker Designer Lisa Frank hosts a fundraiser for the election of The Child Mayor. When the Mayor is kidnapped by terrorists who threaten to blow up the party, journalist Laura and bartender Mike must find the bomb, which may have somehow be connected to the appearance of the pregnant 15 year-old, Tina. It’s all like  a hazy movie found on a VHS tape recorded off of a 3am Oxygen network binge.

Director’s Statement

VHS, or perhaps the sensation of watching a Hollywood film or television show recorded on video, with its ropey visuals and crumbling soundtrack that pops with the sound of an unclean tape head, has been fetishized quite a bit in contemporary popular culture (Be Kind Rewind, etc.).  On some level, this could be a response to that confusing word used to describe moving images that can appear on any platform, “content”. Ironically, while the distribution of movies on video might have been the first offender against the notion that movies were tied to any formally specific filmic properties, the visual texture of VHS now seems more romantic and more rooted in a physical presence than any online media. The disruptions that occur in a tape make the images feel more present.

Shot on MiniDV and transferred to VHS, I tried to make Before Departure look infantile, particularly through the tacky colors and awkward standard aspect-ratio  framing that seems to cut-off at the edge of the screen. It seemed to make sense – the video is a coming-of-age movie where the rituals that have been classified as rights of passage (birth, elections, sex) have become so perverted and overused in personal and media-created narratives, that Departure’s weary characters can only face these strange encounters by not questioning them.

Before Departure was completed under the guidance of animator and Associate Professor Eric Patrick as my senior directing project for Northwestern University. Ideally, the audience for this video would be 12 year-olds who could see after being dropped off at Starbucks to get a frappucino. I suspect they’d understand  a cold movie with a sentimental ending that’s perhaps just a little too sticky-sweet.

Selected Cast Bios

Beka (Lisa Frank) – A veteran Chicago actress, Beka is currently on stage in The Great American Nudie Spectacular at the National Pastime Theater.

Heather Mingo (Jeanne) - Heather Mingo hails from the Commonwealth of Virginia, a graduate of William & Mary, and has spent the past two years in Chicago working on her on camera resume. She has added to her experience extensively since being here and is making the big move to New York in September in hopes to be cast as a dead body on Law & Order: SVU. She can currently be seen on the web series, Assisted Living.

Erica Everage (Tina)- A senior at Northwestern University, Erica played actor Michael Madsen’s daughter in the guilty pleasure sci-fi film, The Sender (1998).