Drift - Film

Drift  is a short film that I am co-directing with Alesja Suzdaltseva and shooting as Director of Photography as part of my Master of Fine Arts at the American Film Institute. It is a three-minute film, shot entirely on 35mm film in the desert and rural areas surrounding Los Angeles.

STORY:

After the death of his daughter, Marceau, a working-class man in his thirties, tries to cope with his grief. Surrounded by his friends, all passionate about customized cars and living near the desert, he moves between moments of despair, brotherly support rooted in a rough, masculine form of affection, bursts of anger, and moments of peace.

Unable to express his pain, Marceau finds refuge in his group of friends and in his customized car, which serves both as a memorial to his daughter and as an outlet for his grief. Through moments of collective abandon, tenderness, and support, he gradually begins to heal his wounds without ever fully closing them.

THEMES : 

• Grief, Anger & Catharsis

  The film deals with a grief that Marceau is unable to put into words. His pain finds its way out through bursts of anger, violence, movement, and a certain search for adrenaline as a form of release. The question is not how Marceau will overcome his grief, but rather how he will learn to live with it within a group of which he is usually the core.

• Masculinity, Vulnerability & the Body

  The film explores a form of masculinity built around emotional restraint. Not crying, not talking about feelings, staying strong. Because words fail them, the body becomes their emotional language. They fight, dance, shove each other, embrace, carry one another, touch. Violence and tenderness become two expressions, sometimes remarkably close to one another, of the same inability to communicate otherwise.

• Rural Working-Class Identity & Tuning Culture

  Rural life, poverty, and tuning culture form the arena of the film. The customized car becomes a means of artistic expression, a marker of belonging to a very specific social group, and an extension of the self in an environment where other forms of cultural expression are limited. The film also seeks to portray with dignity and admiration, and without irony, a popular culture that is often dismissed as vulgar, kitsch, or in poor taste.

Thank you for your support!