Carneys Point - A Short Film

Carneys Point is a fifteen minute short film shot on 16mm film that tells the story of a woman\u27s life, fractured into three facets each representing an important crossroad of a single life: the disenchanting prelude to the coming of age, the anxiety of motherhood, and the mental decay of old age. The film is divided into three vignettes, which overlap to paint a multi-layered portrait of a woman, a trilogy of the human spirit, heart, and mind. One is the story of a little girl who is obsessed with flight and dreams of escape. Though she has the naïve belief that she can change the world through her idealistic mindset and superhero-like intentions, her innocent faith comes to an end when she sees something sinister on the playground. Another tells the story of a woman burdened by the anxiety of motherhood who loses her dog, her only companion, while on the beach one day. In the search for her dog she comes to the distressing realization that the responsibilities of caring for her child-to-be may be more than she can handle. Lastly, as an old woman tries to perform her daily tasks it is revealed that her mental state is rapidly declining. She is suffering from Alzheimer’s disease causing her memory and ability to communicate to interfere with living a normal life. The idea for the film stemmed from my relationship with my grandmother, who was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease a few years ago. As I witnessed first hand the decline of her mental state, I became curious about memory and how it manifests itself in a woman who is losing it. What began as a focus on memory became a new way for me, as a filmmaker, to represent a person’s life, through stories of their past