Will belonging to a minority ultimately end in tragedy?
"For I Am Dead" is an 18min motion picture work by director Patricia Delso Lucas that tries to connect the psychological struggle arising from the deeply repressed love and denied sexual identity through the character Oscar (Al Nazemian). Oscar has everything in a stylish mansion in the 1800s and is immersed in the fun. It is extra special that this plot setting is relatable to contemporary characters, whether from the 1800s or not.
Al Nazemian as a lavish "mansionaire" to portray Oscar's emotional struggle
Cinematographer Dominika Podczaska succeeds in taking the audience back in time through the elegant color choices and handling of the set with simplicity and elegance. In this motion picture, Oscar's character and gardener Jude's (Riggsby Lane) character is portrayed very simply to ensure the gradual movement in the screenplay. Character simplicity and the lead cast's narrative VO are clever tools to make it clear to the audience what reality is and a psychological struggle in the screenplay. Much of this burden is borne by the lead Nazemian. The merits of an elite actor go to Nazemian and the perfect timing performance for Lane!
For I Am Dead can be extended to any situation of identity repression: Oscar being a victim of a time, an ideology, of himself; Jude being the response to him, in the form of love or hate.
Riggsby Lane as antagonist gardener Jude
This motion picture work is no exception to the challenge of creating remarkable characters and scenes within a short duration that is typical of short films. However, it is a fact that the entire film crew has succeeded in elegantly expressing the concept!
About the Director
Patricia Delso Lucas is an independent screenwriter, film director, and cinematographer who earned her MFA in Film Directing at the Skillset Screen Academy in Scotland. She was born in Madrid, Spain, and is currently based in Brussels, Belgium. Her graduation work was nominated for the BAFTA Scotland New Talent Award in 2010. Then, she participated in various international workshops focused on directing narrative films at NYU, Sundance Shorts Lab, Cineuropa.org, Prague Film School, London Film School, and Maine Media Workshops. She also studied cinematography at the Global Cinematography Institute in Los Angeles. Her work ranges from narrative drama to dark comedy to audiovisual poems and documentaries. The stories she feels drawn to writing and directing are heavily character-driven, and the audiovisual world she builds around them often has a thin line between the real and the surreal.
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