If Only Bugle Boy Sweatshirts Could Talk: a Portrait of Youth in the Short Film 'Dread'
The short film format has the capability for interesting and experimental projects because most shorts only have to sustain your attention for minutes, and not hours. Many shorts are a story and a punchline, while others are a dreamy snapshot of life. A.G. Rojas's Dread would better be described as the latter, and the text beneath the video is where I derived my title for this post: "A story about a few hours in the life of a Bugle Boy sweatshirt." It's a bit of misdirection, but in an interesting way it's also a perfect description. The under eight minute short film is worth a look, so click through to check it out.
The film has some NSFW language:
Some may look at this as more of a music video, but the great thing about this format is that it doesn't always have to entertain, sometimes it just wants to let you experience something for a short period of time. The character in Dread is something of an amateur drug dealer and has a love interest and a few interesting friends. He also seems to have gotten himself into a bit of trouble, but beyond that, we don't know much else, and really, with the beautiful cinematography, I could watch him just "be" for at least 30 minutes.
A.G. Rojas also directed a pretty interesting music video for Jack White not too long ago:
Rojas was recently featured as one of Filmmaker Magazine's 25 New Faces of Independent Film, so you can read more about him courtesy of Scott Macaulay at Filmmaker.
What do you guys think? What kind of shorts do you prefer, those that have clear narratives, or those that take a more roundabout storytelling approach?
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