Drifts

TYPE: Narrative Short
GENRE: Drama
STATUS: Development

LOGLINE

Drifts explores the changes in life that unsettle our awareness of the world: a father and son watch the sun rise each day despite the boy’s failing eyesight; a burnt-out photographer struggles to rediscover her passion in the throes of a deep melancholy.

SYNOPSIS

A father and son camping at the shore watch the sun rise and set each day. Into this landscape arrives a middle-aged woman and her teen sons—on vacation from the city. Her sense of weariness is palpable, though she does her best to hide it.

As the kids play together, the woman learns from the
boy’s father that the boy has a genetic condition that will eventually leave him blind. In their final days at the beach, the woman watches the boy’s wide-eyed curiosity toward the beauty around him, while she struggles to connect with the present moment.

Back in the city, she is late to a commercial photo shoot where she bickers with her business partner about the struggling state of their studio.

She is unnerved by an assistant hanging her old art photography on the wall. Staying late to finish work, she is again confronted with the photo, a reminder of her passion for photography that she’s buried.

She has all but forgotten about the boy and his curiosity. But while waiting for a cab, the flicker of the setting sun reaches her. Not as a glorious sunset over the water, but as small blip of light that reflects through the maze of buildings.

ARTISTIC STATEMENT

Drifts is about our awareness of the beauty in the world, and the obstacles that interrupt our connection to it. Ultimately this film follows Nica in her melancholy. And an exploration of that ennui–the murky collection of things it emerges from and how one copes with it–is at the heart of this story. How does depression rob us of our ability to find awe in small moments of everyday wonder? How might the story of Luca’s fading eyesight have an affect on those who take their sight for granted? In the construction of the film, that mix of melancholy and beauty will pervade. The story does this inherently in it’s change of location from the lush exteriors of coastal Maine to the cold interiors of a New York City photography studio. The two environments provide a cinematic way to explore our characters as they engage with these disparate settings. The tone of this film is naturalistic, restrained, observational, patient, and open. Think Kelly Reichardt, Eliza Hittman, or Mia Hansen-Love in their subtle, understated emotional dramas.

KEY CREW

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