A Preview of Short Films from the FSU Film School
The Florida State University Film School is known as the premiere film school in the southeastern United States. Since its inception, films and documentaries produced at the School have garnered awards and accolades throughout the country and internationally.
State of Unrest: A Look into the Life of a Young Sex Offender, a documentary by undergrads Ryland Jones & Mark Bendeck, takes a look at the growing problem of young people being placed on the sex offender registries. The subject of this documentary had a consensual sexual relationship with an underage girl when he was 20, and served 270 days behind bars. Despite the judge's leniency, the subject is a registered sex offender for life.
The sex offender registry is meant to keep track of offenders - especially sexual predators - who might perpetrate their crime on more victims. But like the subject, many young adults on the registry are not predators or violent offenders, but first time offenders: Men who've reached the age of majority, but continued relations with high school sweethearts who were still teens. As a result, offenders face lives where their movements are monitored and restricted; finding meaningful work difficult; having relationships with the opposite sex is near impossible; their families disgraced; they face prejudice; and very possibly are targets of mental and physical violence. All for nothing more than puppy love.
A Florida attorney and a State Senator discuss the problems with the registry guidelines and needed reform, while the subject relates how his life and goals have been impacted by being on the registry. The documentary, because it is short, doesn't fully broach the complexities of the issue; whether or not on purpose, it tends to bias towards the young first time offenders. It's a subject where there's no easy answer, and punishing all justly means damaging lives unjustly.
Also appearing is MFA thesis film First Kill. A hit man's reluctance to do his job is captured on a hunter's camera, prompting him and his partner to search the woods for the owner before the camera is recovered. The hit man eventually finds the owner: A young kid. But he soon learns why and how the kid spends his after school time alone in the woods, and what consequences it means for him.
A mix of suspense, action and macabre, First Kill takes a look at the business and motives of killing and the heart of the man holding the gun, begging the question: Can a man look another in the eye and murder him, even when his life depends on it? Director Micah Ranum does a first rate job of raising the film above the tell-tale signs of student film work and makes First Kill comparable to professional episodic television.
State of Unrest and First Kill are the first films to screen at AFF since 2006, and make for a great comeback.
State of Unrest is part of the Documentary Shorts I program, screening on Saturday, April 18 at 9:55 pm.
First Kill is part of the Action and Suspense Shorts program, which screens on Sunday, April 19 at 3:00 pm, and Monday, April 20 at 1:45 pm.
Stephen Hart is a Clayton County Georgia librarian by day, and a
screenwriter and filmmaker night and weekends. He is a staff writer for
CinemATL.