Thank you to UCC and to Prof Singer for inviting us to your campus!
'The Yellow Room
A short but focused film on a matter of personal conflict that is evolving both in The Yellow Room and, as we later understand, elsewhere as well, as evidenced
by a phone call that “comes too late”. This film captures the harsh reality of how women, no matter what the cultural context, too often have no recourse but to turn to using desperate means to resolve an inconvenient pregnancy. The Yellow Room metaphor is interesting because yellow often conjures up a warm image, yet in
this case it appears as an impersonal and emotionally cold environment, reflective of the emotional detachment that the young woman engages in, so that she can follow through with her bounded decision. The music, the images and the dialogue appear impersonal, marginalizing the young woman and her ethical dilemma. Beautifully filmed and emotionally stirring. One is pulled into the unspoken hypnotic deliberation that her face expresses throughout the film, only to be stirred by a phone call that “comes too late”. The message you are left with is that such decisions are a woman’s to make.
A Day in Eden
This film, which feels like it is filmed through a sheet of gauze, lulls the viewer
into a conflict between religious doctrine and the basic responsibility that humans have for each other in times of crisis. Arriving to simply share some music with residents of nursing home, a young female musician, bounded by religious doctrine, is confronted with a human dilemma that requires her to reach into herself to manage and reconcile the crisis. She rises above her religious constraints when confronted with the desperate needs of one of the more difficult residents, turning to what really makes us all equal, compassion and empathy, setting aside her religious convictions. The primary dialogue is delivered in the music, the face of the young woman and the emotional outburst of the patient. As in The Yellow Room, one is swept into the dilemma, moving emotionally with the main character as she struggles with the conflict that has unexpectedly unfolded before her. On so many levels she is challenged by this crisis. Her human driven response makes the viewer reach into oneself, asking, what would I have done in this situation. The message you are left with is that no one can speculate what one would do in such a situation until actually emotionally engaged by such circumstances.
General comment....To capture such dilemmas and the emotional conflict that accompanies each of them in a span of only 8-10 minutes, causes me to want to think of this filmmaker as a “film poet” ....... Or poetry through film......' (Prof. Dr Cynthia Singer, March 2013)
A short but focused film on a matter of personal conflict that is evolving both in The Yellow Room and, as we later understand, elsewhere as well, as evidenced
by a phone call that “comes too late”. This film captures the harsh reality of how women, no matter what the cultural context, too often have no recourse but to turn to using desperate means to resolve an inconvenient pregnancy. The Yellow Room metaphor is interesting because yellow often conjures up a warm image, yet in
this case it appears as an impersonal and emotionally cold environment, reflective of the emotional detachment that the young woman engages in, so that she can follow through with her bounded decision. The music, the images and the dialogue appear impersonal, marginalizing the young woman and her ethical dilemma. Beautifully filmed and emotionally stirring. One is pulled into the unspoken hypnotic deliberation that her face expresses throughout the film, only to be stirred by a phone call that “comes too late”. The message you are left with is that such decisions are a woman’s to make.
A Day in Eden
This film, which feels like it is filmed through a sheet of gauze, lulls the viewer
into a conflict between religious doctrine and the basic responsibility that humans have for each other in times of crisis. Arriving to simply share some music with residents of nursing home, a young female musician, bounded by religious doctrine, is confronted with a human dilemma that requires her to reach into herself to manage and reconcile the crisis. She rises above her religious constraints when confronted with the desperate needs of one of the more difficult residents, turning to what really makes us all equal, compassion and empathy, setting aside her religious convictions. The primary dialogue is delivered in the music, the face of the young woman and the emotional outburst of the patient. As in The Yellow Room, one is swept into the dilemma, moving emotionally with the main character as she struggles with the conflict that has unexpectedly unfolded before her. On so many levels she is challenged by this crisis. Her human driven response makes the viewer reach into oneself, asking, what would I have done in this situation. The message you are left with is that no one can speculate what one would do in such a situation until actually emotionally engaged by such circumstances.
General comment....To capture such dilemmas and the emotional conflict that accompanies each of them in a span of only 8-10 minutes, causes me to want to think of this filmmaker as a “film poet” ....... Or poetry through film......' (Prof. Dr Cynthia Singer, March 2013)
