How Brief, director Kelly McCormack’s Sundance short film inspired by the music of disappeared 50s singer-songwriter Connie Converse, has released a moving teaser.
The cast of the short, which had its world premiere at Sundance on Sunday night and will next be screened at the Manchester Film Festival, includes Tess Degenstein (who also wrote the screenplay), She-Hulk’s Tatiana Maslany (who serves on the Sundance World Film and Drama Competition jury), and Gray Powell (The Last Frontier, Brilliant Minds). McCormack is a filmmaker and performer whose acting credits include the award-winning feature film “Sugar Daddy,” as well as Eva Victor’s hit film “Sorry Baby,” Julio Torres’ “Problemista,” Amazon’s “A League of Their Own,” and co-starring Jessica Chastain in “George & Tammy.”
The official synopsis describes How Brief as a “disappearance drama about a restless woman who returns one last time to her childhood home one night in 1962.” “Inspired by the music of singer-songwriter Connie Converse and accompanied by poems by other women who have chosen to disappear, ‘How Brief’ explores one question for women: when is oblivion preferable to this life?”
Converse was active in New York City’s Greenwich Village scene in the ’50s and was one of the first champions of the singer-songwriter musical genre. In 1974, she left her parents’ home and was never seen or heard from again.
Converse “wrote unforgettable records in the 1950s and then plotted their own escape,” McCormack said in a director’s statement. “This short film felt like the right format to celebrate this radical act of self-determination and self-redaction, told with all the brilliance and brilliance I could muster, while also allowing our protagonists to evade us as they wish.”
McCormack continues: The question that drove this research was not why women choose to disappear, but rather why they don’t. I wanted to capture all the horror and glory that comes with accepting this fact. This film has been the longest development process of my life, and as Connie says, we took our time and lovingly crafted it to be short. “How sad, how lovely, how brief, how short, like life, like your smile, like the falling of a leaf.” ”
How Brief was produced by Ariel Bond, Lucy McNulty and Jill Austen and edited by Kane Stewart. Check out the teaser below.
