Everything Strange and New

Colour, HD CAM
USA, 2008, 84 min
Section: Forum of Independents

Synopsis

We can’t say that Wayne’s life is over, yet neither can we shake the feeling that he has nothing left to fight for. Everyday life brings him nothing but disappointment, something that could be generalized as a social diagnosis. Wayne would like to wake up from his "American nightmare,” but he finds it impossible. The movie ranks among those works which thwart the illusion that the main purpose of cinematography is to provide a means of escape. In harmony with its bleak tone, the film, which focuses on average characters, manages to look beyond the banality of daily life. Explicit dramatic action isn’t necessary in that the protagonists have fallen into a lethargy that even disastrous events can’t pull them out of. Detachment from the varied superficial dramas that dominate this introverted and disturbing film gradually leads the viewer to the same position that plagues the protagonist – and thousands of other actual people who have surrendered to the same dream.

About the director

Frazer Bradshaw began as a visual artist and also studied experimental music. Short structuralist films which screened at festivals around the world eventually gave way to narrative features, but even here the director blurs the border between experimentation and classic film fiction. As a director of photography Bradshaw contributed to dozens of independent film projects. Everything Strange and New, which took the FIPRESCI Prize at the San Francisco film festival, is Bradshaw’s first foray into feature filmmaking.