When an earthquake starts
Whatever I’m doing comes
To an abrupt stop.
Tuesday, February 2, 2016
Ponytail Paul is the central character in the latest short trail film sent to me via e-mail. This one is second in REI’s short film series about how certain individuals connect to three trails around the country. Paul’s connection is to the Appalachian Trail.
I’m not going to summarize the plot. The film is only 6 minutes long after all, so you could watch all of it almost as quickly as you can read this blog, but what I enjoyed about Paul’s story is it’s about a person who is neither a runner nor hiker, yet is still profoundly effected by his trail experiences. I don’t feel it was necessary for REI to emphasize this by showing a close up of Paul’s overflowing ashtray, but that’s about it for the knit-picking of this particular short.
I will say that all trail films seem to follow a very well worn format; there’s the slow motion movement with the main character’ voice over, the tranquil new age music to cover up the incessant mosquito buzz, and damned if there isn’t always a tree that gets a slow-mo close up and takes forever to move past it.
Let’s see…REI’s first film was about an Asian man’s experience with the Bay Trail. This film was about a white man’s experience with the A.T. What do you think will be next? I’m guessing not a lumberjack who’s vowed to rid us all of those dreaded warlock trees.
No comments:
Post a Comment