When you can’t do the same things the same way that you usually do them, you have to get creative. That need for difference drove the short film “Reflections,” to the ‘Best Short Short’ award at the Cannes Short Film Festival this past week, and it’s a delicious win for the one author, two directors and 27 women who starred in the production.
Creative Director of AVPA Theatre Lee Margaret Hanson and AVPA Film Director Holly Gable made this film “on a whim for our program’s year-end fundraiser,” said Gable. “She [Hanson] directed, I shot. We drove to 27 houses in 4 days (in separate cars) to shoot from a distance 27 girls in front of their homes.”
Creating in the time of COVID-19 opened up some strong options. The film is a reading of a poem written by then 8th grader Ginger Anderson-Willis, with each young woman taking a line and delivering it to the camera.
Both Hanson and Gable were pleased that this was a female-only project. Hanson enthused, “Look what can happen when women come together and lift each other up. Every single one of these girls and women who made this, made this really special.”
This short was edited by Sofia Camberos, and the original score was created by Melody Caudill.
In addition, “Reflections” won a Jury Award at the Moving Parts Film Festival this past weekend on Sept. 26, 2020. Moving Parts is a festival in Los Angels going into it’s fourth year, focusing on underrepresented voices.
The much more well-known Cannes Film Festival – the one where features from studios compete – will see ‘Reflections’ apply there as well.
Judith Martin-Straw
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