Local filmmakers tackle the sticky subject of love.
Conceived, shot and edited entirely over a period of ten days last December by local Santa Fe actors and filmmakers,
Mirage
is a film about the differences between love and marriage as well as their combined power in modern society. Though the actors use their real names,
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they're all playing characters whose thoughts, feelings and opinions aren't necessarily their own. Both plot and dialogue are improvised based on loose scenarios and the even looser characters who inhabit them.
A young man wanders the streets of Santa Fe in search of "fucked-up chicks" to take back to the home he shares with a man known as Jefe (local musician Jefe) and a childlike mute named Jules (Stephen "Jules" Rubin) fond of riding a tricycle. As Jefe's house fills with these drifting women, he begins to exert a cult-leader kind of control over them, beginning a series of "lessons" that include questioning a woman's role in society, telling them they deserve abuse because they're sexy and forcing them to listen to a degrading rap song. The women soon realize Jefe ain't all that and begin scheming to leave. When Roller Skate Lisa (Lisa K Hill) decides it's time to split and be with her boyfriend Freddie (Frederick Lopez), Jefe resists and tries one final act of control over her.
Given the time crunch and freewheeling structure of the film, which was produced as part of a workshop during the Santa Fe Film Festival with filmmaker and author Rick Schmidt (
Feature Filmmaking at Used Car Prices
),
Mirage
is surprisingly cohesive with a solid narrative line running throughout. The unscripted moments come off largely as genuine and natural, though some-when
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Mike (Michael Saliba) laughs uncontrollably at Jules' idiotic antics-result in labored
scenes which should have found their way to the cutting room floor. Perhaps with more time to shoot and edit, the potential for polish would have achieved a brighter sheen.
The film is punctuated by documentary-style interviews in which the characters express their frustration over love and relationships and relate strange experiences they've had. Freddie's apprehension over his budding relationship with Lisa gives the film its name when he notes the similarities between the words "marriage" and "mirage" For him, love has always been an oasis on the horizon that's never turned out to be real. These vignettes of direct observation add honest insight to an honest production.
After its premiere this past weekend,
Mirage
will hit the film festival circuit and appear on DVD in the near future. For more information on this film or the Santa Fe Film Festival and its annual filmmaking workshops, call 988-5225.
