You could take the moment when your brain is contemplating suicide and expand it into an infinite drama. So much is going on in that tiny sliver of time, it’s all so complex, and it does not move like regular time. Sadly, I know this from experience. Shattered, in its minimalistic realism, captures that precise moment.
The short film Shattered almost frames the main character twenty-something Kelsey’s brush with suicide as an intimate date with herself to stay home, drink some wine, and take too many pills. When the time comes to take the pills though, although it appears to be a premeditated act in some ways, there is some hesitation, some looking in the mirror, and then a clumsy spilling of the pills.
I won’t speculate on what happens here, and all suicidal ideation is different for every person. However, many people find that their survival instinct is stronger than they thought. Some find themselves making mistakes sort of accidentally on purpose, or delaying, realizing there was some other paper they had to put in order or that they didn’t want to die on a Wednesday night. I’m not trying to suggest that Kelsey’s spill was an intentional spill, or a spill due to nerves or inebriation or a combination of the above. What’s powerful is that director Kate Hanson maintains this quiet ambiguity.
What Kelsey is feeling in this intimate moment is for the most part indescribable anyway, and the film takes the bold choice to not describe anything but to allow us to simply observe and experience. It’s a fascinating moment that is rarely if ever explored in film that I think shows how wavering the will to live can sometimes be and how just one mundane factor can tip the balance.
You can view Shattered in Shorts Block No. 3 of the virtual festival, now playing free through 11/5: https://watch.eventive.org/…/650f018b9a6fd800afc3c5d4
