About one year into living in Los Angeles, someone at a coffee shop told me about LA Loft Movie Club. This “club” is a quarterly film festival for one-minute movies. The premise tickled me.
“One minute for a whole movie?” you may ask.
Yes. As LLMC1 asserts on the homepage of their website, “a movie can be one minute.”
Participating in LLMC looks like this: they announce an event date and theme, you submit examples of your artistic work to be considered, you are accepted, you make a new film that is one minute long, and on the event date you watch the program alongside dozens of other filmmakers who did the same.
It is uniquely cool to watch 40 different short films in one night.
I love a prompt and as mentioned, each LLMC event has a theme. This challenge to concept, write, film, edit, and produce a new work short film according to a thematic prompt is a fantastic container for my brand of creative generation. I wanted to play.
So I followed the club on social media for a while. I watched as they hosted an event that I couldn't attend. I waited for the next announcement. Then…
In January 2023, they posted about their upcoming program:
What is sticky and horrible and sweet? Our Valentine’s adjacent theme: “BLOOD THICKNESS LOVE SICKNESS: Who We Hold Close” We invite you to consider the bonds of love…crushes, heartbreaks, family, ancestry, and those we’ve forgotten.
My mind instantly started buzzing. Blood and love. Feeling sick and holding close. Bonds and memories. I did not know what I would turn out, but I knew this was the theme for me!
I submitted and was chosen, so Drew2 and I got to work.
What resulted was a sweet, albeit heartrending, film about what is left behind when we lose a loved one. Object Permanence is a filmic collage of grief for my paternal grandmother, compiled from new footage of inherited items and old voicemails spanning nearly 8 years.
Please enjoy…
With this micro-short I give you a little piece of my heart.
If you feel so inclined, please leave a little piece of yours in the comments ⚘
LA Loft Movie Club, henceforth abbreviated
My life-and-creative partner
the way these voicemails instantly bring tears to my eyes. so lovely, so beautiful (& the lighting!)
Oh, my. Jess. So poignant. Her voice is so alive. Those objects! I have kept voice messages from my beloveds but are so afraid to listen...this beautiful goodbye begs me to. How beautiful.