Bright

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.

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.

We watched BRIGHT with our 13 year old daughter who was extremely moved by the film, as were we. The message of the film is very personal and powerful: that we need to leave our safe worlds, face our fears, and go and search for our lives. Only in this way will we become strong and grow into the full, multi-faceted and complex individuals that we have the potential to be. This overarching theme is artfully developed on several different levels throughout the film, both through the storyline and the beautiful use of symbols. But the reason this film succeeds is that the actual story line is extremely compelling and we are left guessing throughout the film as to the "real" story behind the characters. In short, we are left wanting more. Thank you for a beautiful film. Karen Puschel

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.

A fabulous journey into the mind, into the soul, into the past and into the future await the unsuspecting viewer. Ben Busch gently guides you into the serene, yet troubled world of a man/child who seeks the comfort of his childhood but finds himself in the harsh bright light of reality. It is a reality he tries hard to avoid facing. Ben Busch has produced on a shoestring budget a real masterpiece. It beautifully draws you to the key characters and gradually exposes each of their greatest fears, and their strengths. The dialogue is taut and poetic, the direction is smooth and flowing, the production qualities are impressively professional for such a low-budget film. This film deserves a large audience and this filmmaker, actor, director and writer deserves a shot at a big project. He captures his audience like few I have have ever seen.