In the short psychological film Distortion, Eugene finds himself torn between reality and delusion after a suicide attempt. Unable to remember his past apart from vague memories from his childhood growing up in a hospital, Eugene decides to consult a psychic, only to find out in the end the terrible truth.
Says director Daniel Van Alendre: “Memory is an unreliable thing.
As time goes on, past events tend to become foggier. Often we find ourselves filling those gaps of memory with convenient truths, and distort events of our past to have some peace of mind; this is especially true when we experience traumatic events which we feel we can never recover from. This is the moment when fact and fiction blend together to create a convenient past to help us move on. Nevertheless imaginary constructs are flimsy and flawed, and when imagination can no longer contain the truth, reality overwhelms us with recurrent flashbacks and mental-illness.
As the father of psychology once said, “Unexpressed emotions will never die. They are buried alive and will come forth later in uglier ways.” Truth always finds a way to reveal itself.”
Distortion is screening as part of Shorts Block No. 3 in the virtual festival.
Mental Filmness 