Sunday, April 24, 2005

Don't use tragedy to spice up your shorts

I was just watching a film short on IFC. It was about a woman who was just floating through life with her husband in the city so they move to the country and she takes on a lover who is not faithful. Nothing good about this short, save the knowledge that her husband was always faithful to her. Then, the "punchline" of the short is that the woman's husband goes to the city for a symposium and dies in the WTC attack. ? I implore you, mediocre artists -- do not use extreme tragedy to rise your uncreative works from the bottom of the pile. It's uncouth. I am all for freedom of speech, but if your only way to garner emotion from your audience is to throw in a national tragedy you had NOTHING to do with, it's not yours to use. You need to work for our emotion. Otherwise, don't bother.

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