Bright

This is a brilliant and sophisticated short film showing the vivid struggle of a young man overcoming his most terrifying fear. The film doesn't tell the story, it shows the story, giving credit to the audience for having the intelligence to follow a tightly bound script. Nothing is rushed, and the director is unafraid of using silence at times, without feeling the need to fill the heavy weight of that silence with unnecessary dialog. The true nature of the main character's fear is magnified by this quiet, and this even pulls at the viewer's own fears. I found it very effective.

The performance of the main character (played by Eric Nenninger) is subtle, and honest, without being overly emotive. There is a lot more scope to his story arc than can be shown in a short film, and a part of me would love to see a feature length version of Bright. But it also resides very well within the realm of the short film genre, because the viewer is allowed to fill in the rest of the story with their own imagination, making Bright unique to each person who sees it.

What struck me most was the artistry of the cinematography. Each scene seems to be so well crafted, and almost every frame would make a beautiful still photograph. This speaks volumes for the talent of writer/director Benjamin Busch, who closely choreographed every facet of Bright. The cast and crew obviously deserve a lot of credit too.

I highly recommend Bright, and hope it gets picked up by HBO or the Independent Film Channel so that more people may get to see it!

I can't remember the last time I've seen such a truly poetic film – virtually every frame and every line of dialogue comes off as unbelievably precise composition. The acting across the board feels very "lived in," nuanced in a natural way. Nenninger (Troy) is a quiet force: he keeps his fears and loss bottled-up in a taut physicality, and only through his eyes can we get a sense of the emotional turbulence within. Robert Wisdom (Irwin) wonderfully inhabits the complex father (/mother) figure to Troy's lost child, urging his surrogate son to muster the courage to journey into the harsh light—and sometimes darkness—of the real world.

There's a lot of trust here on the part of writer/director Benjamin Busch—a trust in the viewers to engage themselves with the film and work to fill out the narrative, or rather, what's going on beneath the given narrative. Bright is a bit of an iceberg: we're given a straightforward drama on the surface, with a whole lot of seriously weighty matter floating underneath. It'll stick with you long after the final shot, leaving you thinking about your own fears, your own piece of childhood that you may keep alive without even knowing it, about the pools of light and darkness in our lives and how we navigate between them. Bright is an intensely contemplative film and its pace reflects this, but if you allow yourself the time and effort to deeply breath it in, you'll be richly rewarded.

Busch has crafted a profoundly resonant short, and on a shoestring no less. I can only imagine how dangerous he'd be with some money for a feature. Definitely catch this on the festival circuit if you can.

I recently had the chance to watch BRIGHT at the Magnolia Independent Film Festival- one of several festivals was screening at in mid February 2011 as it began its tour on the festival circuit.

From the first frame to the last, this film is a cinematographic feast. Rich visuals support a skilled writing hand, and experienced direction in this longer than normal short film. It's length however, is not a detriment. The story takes as long to tell as it needs to and the running time felt perfect.

The acting is performed with such natural, believable deliveries that, as a viewer, you often feel like a fly on the wall witnessing the true lives of real people. Sometimes you will laugh with the characters, and at other times you will feel their pain, and ultimately their redemption.

BRIGHT, for me, is about the fear of living and coming to terms with that fear. It is something many people can identify with, and I highly recommend catching as it continues touring at film festivals.

There's a REASON why "Bright" took "Best of Show" in this year's Tupelo Film Festival: It is, quite simply, a flash of great ideas and execution. The story is richly-layered, the script eloquent and original. Writer/Director Benjamin Busch has crafted a short film so well developed that it has the story appeal of a longer film without needless exposition. More to the point, you can't help but be drawn in by its multifaceted story because it appeals on so many levels -- intellectual, emotional, spiritual, and visual. The relationship between "Bright"'s central characters -- "Troy" and "Irwin" (played by Eric Nenninger and Robert Wisdom) -- is absolutely multidimensional. Armando Ballesteros' cinematography easily captures the archetypal spirit of this fine script. Editor Frank Reynolds' disciplined hand is evident throughout. Even Benjamin Keddy's minimalist score plays a huge role in its own way. There's more to this film than meets the eye -- "Bright" is a brilliant work -- and that's exactly the point. Overlook this film at your own peril, lest you find yourself in the dark without an Edison bulb to guide you back home.

The Hamilton International Film Festival, run by Slater Brothers Entertainment, was pleased to welcome Benjamin Busch and his film, Bright, to their annual film festival this past summer in Hamilton, New York. The Award Winning short film received a standing ovation and was one of the key shorts that played at the festival. The film was incredibly well done with acting performances that are truly memorable. The film played incredibly well and the story was both thought provoking and touching. Special attention should be placed on Busch's directing ability. The cinematography was beautiful as where many of the set ups throughout the film. The festival was thrilled to have the film in attendance.