NOTE: From September 12 – 19, I attended the CICFF to watch New Dimensions, their newest festival program for young adults 18 – 25 years of age. This is one of the two short reviews I will write on my favorite entries from the festival.       

The Record is a Swiss animated short film directed by Jonathan Lasakar. One day, a man comes into the shop of an antique instrument seller and presents him with a record. As this man plays the record, he lifts the needle and places it in the same spot a few times, but each time a different song is played. With the antique dealer sufficiently mesmerized, the man explains that the record is magic: it plays the sounds of a person’s lost memories. The shop owner takes the record with him and we are taken with him as the sounds of the vinyl move him through the painful memories he has long since forgotten.

This short expertly employs both light and sound. For the majority of the film, everything is shown in two colors: stark black and vivid white, hardly even any of grays between. The film is a dance of shapes; objects, places, and people are created and destroyed and recreated as they pass between the light and the darkness. The movement of a train is captured brilliantly as we watch the face of our main character, in his childhood, disappear and reappear through the changing of the light cast throughout his train car. The space and movement is also captured brilliantly through the film’s sound as well, paired perfectly and rhythmically with the changing in light. 

Beyond sound effects, the original score itself is breathtaking. It is calming and somber and moving. It pairs perfectly with the visual style of the art and animation. Both the bold artistic style and hypnotic score embody the emotions the main character experiences throughout the story. The somber mood of the art, sound, and world make the space for remembering and, by the, healing.