{"id":755,"date":"2022-10-21T18:43:19","date_gmt":"2022-10-21T18:43:19","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/wordpress.lvc.edu\/wordpress\/greenblotter\/?p=755"},"modified":"2022-10-21T18:43:19","modified_gmt":"2022-10-21T18:43:19","slug":"and-suddenly-the-light-broke-through-the-water-review-of-adam-graf-and-mandy-peterats-stained-skin","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wordpress.lvc.edu\/greenblotter\/2022\/10\/21\/and-suddenly-the-light-broke-through-the-water-review-of-adam-graf-and-mandy-peterats-stained-skin\/","title":{"rendered":"\u201cAnd suddenly, the light broke through the water\u201d: Review of Adam Graf and Mandy Peterat\u2019s \u201cStained Skin\u201d"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Reviewed by Isaac Fox<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Adam Graf and Mandy Peterat\u2019s 2021 short film \u201cStained Skin\u201d plays out in a grimy, windowless factory filled with machine sounds. It\u2019s not clear where (or when) this factory is, or what\u2019s happening outside of it. For Alba (played by Marisa Wojtkowiak) and Samy (Safinaz Sattar), there is<\/em> no outside world, no outside life. Not only do they work endless hours in the factory\u2014feeding fabric through machines and dyeing it, ad infinitum\u2014they also sleep in one of its dark corners, behind heaps of inventory in a claustrophobic room with concrete walls.<\/span><\/p>\n

As the two work, Alba\u2014who seems to play some kind of mentor role in their relationship\u2014tells Samy a story. It\u2019s a fairy tale about Nanami, a girl who lives and works at the bottom of the ocean, collecting pearls. Her people\u2019s rulers have stolen their voices to silence them and keep them working.<\/span><\/p>\n

Alba, Samy, and the factory all appear in live action, but this undersea world\u2014where catfish and octopi are the enforcers of oppression\u2014is animated in elemental near-monochrome shades. Nanami and her fellow laborers glow white in a shadowy world.<\/span><\/p>\n

This premise sounds like a rather simplistic parable about hope. However, in the hands of Graf and Peterat, it becomes something more complex and ambiguous. Alba\u2019s fairy tale about hope initially ends in failure and despair. Nanami sneaks past the catfish and wins a few moments at the water\u2019s surface, where she watches her people\u2019s rulers enjoy themselves and dance. But then an octopus pulls her back down and imprisons her, and that\u2019s that; the end.<\/span><\/p>\n

With a little prodding, Samy convinces Alba to tell a more hopeful version of the story. But even this cheerier edition ends in uncertainty (and isn\u2019t much cheerier anyway). The oppressive rulers die, and Nanami and the other girls working alongside her free themselves, but their world is damaged; \u201cthe ocean [is] still black, not blue\u201d; and the exact details of the girls\u2019 fates are unknowable. They survive, though, and \u201cthey [swear] themselves to never touch a single pearl again.\u201d In the next scene\u2014the film\u2019s last\u2014Alba and Samy are still in the textile factory, doing the same work they were doing in the film\u2019s early scenes.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cStained Skin\u201d pushes viewers to ask big questions: Can hope rescue the oppressed? Can storytelling start revolutions? Are hope and storytelling one and the same, and are they enough? And in response, the film frowns at us and says, Quiet down\u2014it\u2019s not that simple. It\u2019s not that easy.<\/span><\/p>\n

Isaac Fox is a student at Lebanon Valley College, where he majors in English and creative writing. He spends his free time reading and writing things that aren\u2019t assigned, shooting pictures, and playing the clarinet. His fiction and photography have appeared in Rune Bear,<\/em> Heart of Flesh,<\/em> and Rejection Letters,<\/em> and he has work forthcoming in Tiny Molecules.<\/em> You can find him on Twitter at @IsaacFo80415188<\/a>.<\/span><\/p><\/div><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Reviewed by Isaac Fox Adam Graf and Mandy Peterat\u2019s 2021 short film \u201cStained Skin\u201d plays out in a grimy, windowless factory filled with machine sounds. It\u2019s not clear where (or […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[3,17],"class_list":["post-755","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-isaac-fox","tag-short-film-review","clearfix"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.lvc.edu\/greenblotter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/755","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.lvc.edu\/greenblotter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.lvc.edu\/greenblotter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.lvc.edu\/greenblotter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.lvc.edu\/greenblotter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=755"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.lvc.edu\/greenblotter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/755\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.lvc.edu\/greenblotter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=755"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.lvc.edu\/greenblotter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=755"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.lvc.edu\/greenblotter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=755"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}