Review of "One of Them" BY Steve Fesenmaier, West Virginia Library Commission

One of Them
by Jason Brown
7 mins. 19 sec.

Jason Brown, a long-time film activist in the Charleston area, who is now working at UNC-Greensboro, has made a very interesting short film based on his own amazing life history. The film is basically one take of a young woman talking about meeting, and marrying the love of her life. She meets the unnamed object of desire during a play. She eventually goes off to NYC for the wedding where some unfortunate events take place. I watched the film twice, enjoying the realistic presentation of a quite amazing story.

I found the reversal of the situation very interesting. Brown tells a story from the woman's viewpoint whereas in fact the events are based on his own male perspective.

The theme seems to be the slippery nature of identity. When the young woman is about to get married, she panics because she is asked for a photo ID - which she has left at her dwelling in New Jersey. The final surprise takes place when she sees her new husband getting arrested by local police. When she rushes to his aid, his only comment to her is,"Are you one of them?" This shows the extreme paranoia her lover always had toward her.

I was talking to Jason last night after watching the film, and recalled the most famous recent one-take film - Aleksandr Sokurov's "Russian Ark" supposedly made using digital equipment, taking a tour of the Heritage Museum. Jason said he was more inspired by the work of Rodrigo Garcia.

I greatly enjoyed the anti-MTV style of both his film and "Ark." It's nice to be able to look at a person without a jittery camera endlessly jump-cutting. It is also nice to watch a person express real emotion without resulting in extreme action.

The film was shown at the River City Film Festival in Marietta. http://rivercityfilmfestival.com/schedule.