Bright

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.

As a film festival director who has watched literally thousands of film submissions, both short and feature- length, it's rare that I see a film with perfect pacing, but Bright makes that grade even though its pacing is measured and deliberate. Some might describe it as slow, and yet our screening committee found it a great pleasure, in this day of frenetic films, to be able to absorb the carefully constructed imagery and to digest the dialogue. So many of those images remain in the mind's eye even a year later – the sensuous orange peel, the glowing incandescent filament of a light bulb, Robert Wisdom's inward-looking gaze. It almost goes without saying that the cast, led by Eric Nenninger, is superb; each actor digs into the meaty script and wrings subtle, deeply felt emotions from it.

Benjamin Busch has been a favorite at Landlocked Film Festival since we got to know him through his earlier (also excellent) film, Sympathetic Details. It's been a pleasure to watch his growth as a writer and director.

The extinguished filament that closes the film leaves an afterimage that transforms the film into an allegory of light and dark, fear and courage, and how we form bonds with others, drawing courage and light from them. Speaking for myself, I give it my highest recommendation as a film worth seeing and a story worth telling.

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

Describing the essential requirements of a "skillful literary artist," Edgar Allan Poe wrote in a review of Nathaniel Hawthorne's "Tales from an Old Manse": "The unity of effect or impression is a point of great importance... without a certain continuity of effort--without a certain duration or repetition of purpose--the soul is never deeply moved." Every moment, Poe said, must be "conceived, with deliberate care, (to create) a certain unique or single effect."

Benjamin Busch has created such a work of art with his short film "Bright," about Troy (Eric Nenninger) a young man who must overcome a paralyzing fear in order to move forward with his life. Every moment in the film is skillfully and deliberately planned to create a particular effect in the viewer. The film establishes a rich atmosphere from its opening moments and is filled with symbolic imagery, especially regarding light. Troy is raised by a blind adoptive father, Irwin (Robert Wisdom), who represents the iconic blind sage of mythology and guides Troy on what turns out to be a spiritual journey. Irwin is blind, but he can "see"; Troy is sighted, but his back is always toward the light.

In this dystopian future, Troy works as a restorationist, helping people regain their sense of continuity with their past by finding old-style original light bulbs for their homes. This is, of course, a metaphor for the conflict between what is natural and what is artificial, what is light and what is dark, in the search for courage and meaning in life.

The pacing is deliberately slow, filmed at "the pace of real thought," according to director Busch, who wants viewers to have the time to hear the dialog. As a result, viewers can contemplate philosophically meaty lines like "There's danger in all this safety"... "Someone who never sees, never knows"... "I miss the light but I can remember it"..."I loved and I lost, and I'm glad that I loved"... and "How much would you pay to be happy?"

"Bright" won the 2011 award for Best Short Drama and the Audience Choice Award at the Anthem Libertarian Film Festival.It is a film to be seen with friends, and discussed in long leisurely conversations afterward. As Poe said of Hawthorne's "Tales," "withal is a calm astonishment that ideas so apparently obvious have never occurred or been presented (like this) before." I think Poe would have been pleased with "Bright."

I really liked this film. The writing is elegiac and the directing elegant. Though a short movie, the performances are never rushed and the actors are given the space to take ownership of the moments. As a result the story accrues a deep emotional resonance.

Robert Wisdom is fantastic, digging in to create a rich and complex character. And Eric Nenninger's work as the central character carefully avoids the typical (read: banal) quirks and tics that are usual employed to indicate a character is damaged in some way and instead brings someone very real and captivating to life. the And any time one gets to see Andre Royo on film is a gift.

A wonderful debut(?) for director/writer Benjamin Busch who subtle writing is not without little gems of poetry.