For anyone who might think they don’t have time to watch the features, I’d like to highlight Quiet, Arlo. At forty minutes long, it straddles the border between being a short film or a feature length, but its epic and cinematic presentation felt more in the spirit of a standalone feature to me. Directed with confidence and ambition by David Guerrero, this is an assured film that it’s difficult to believe was a student project from Studio 76 out of Weber State University. Based on real lived experience with bipolar disorder and addiction, it portrays those illnesses in depth, with style and substance to spare.
While I’ve seen many films about these topics, Quiet, Arlo does something different with a presentation I’d call slick and even “cool.” I wouldn’t say that the film makes having bipolar disorder or a substance use disorder “cool.” What I mean is, the film itself, with its frenzied voice-over and anxiety-inducing rapid cutting and panning, reminds me of films by cool, stylish directors like David Fincher and Martin Scorsese, which come to think of it, have also captured men struggling with mental health in their own way.
But Quiet, Arlo is not just cool, it’s also functional: the sound, monologue, and visuals in work together in conveying some of the more indescribable aspects of bipolar disorder as a visceral experience where you really get inside Arlo’s head. Abounding with hyper-literate metaphors capturing creative writer Arlo’s condition like deep-sea diving and playing with fire, his mind can be both a dark and beautiful place to be.
You can find Quiet, Arlo, in the features section of the virtual festival streaming for FREE now through 11/2: Quiet, Arlo | Mental Filmness 2025
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