#blubbly

Allow me to paint a picture. I’m scrolling YouTube on November 26th. Life is, as it is. Days have been passing with increasing speed, while I wile away time playing games, looking for jobs, or lukewarmly pursuing a variety of passion projects. It is in this head space I see a community announcement from a artist/creator/essayist I follow, Hazel (https://www.youtube.com/@hhhazel) (Not only Hazel, her sister Mae (https://www.youtube.com/@maedotmkv). She has a movie coming out. Divine Hammer. She announces that on December 15th the premier is happening and there are not many tickets left. I hem and haw for a moment (I already know I’m not busy), ask my wife if she’s busy (she’s not), and I buy our tickets. I only remembered only the elevator pitch. There is also a trailer, which I didn’t watch.

There will be almost no details about the movie itself. If you’re hoping to get any inkling of contents of the movie, no dice, buddy.

I’ll say I loved it and it’s such an easy recommend. If you have the chance to see it in the theatre, do so. If you don’t, I guess just wait patiently or join their mailing list.

So! How do you talk about a movie without talking about a movie? I’m not sure yet, maybe I’ll find out along the way.

I can talk about the filmmaking, I think if you do watch the trailer it’s pretty easy to tell that it isn’t filmed on Red 6k Hobbit cameras. It’s filmed on old handheld cameras. Does the movie’s look feel “independent”? “Found footage”? “Low quality”? I think the movie looks good and feels right. Which is an enormous testament! If you have seen old movies that were shot on similar cameras. They all have a specific look. Even more specifically, many movies shy away from the fact that they are using cameras, trying to be as fancy as possible. Also? I could hear the dialogue! I sit here writing this having just come home from the screening, only now realize that gulf of difference between this and other old handicam videos. Maybe I’m just more accustomed to seeing “bad” movies that don’t know how to get good audio, who knows!

I… I think that’s about it for things about the movie. But I have a couple of other tangential thoughts.

Since at this point I’m just going to ramble, I can also talk about how these are the first “internet” people I’ve seen in person. I was wondering what that would be like, and...it was surreal and mundane at the same time. I don’t dabble in parasociality, primarily because I just...don’t care? That’s also not entirely right, but if you told me I could meet any given YouTuber, I would say, “Love your work.” If one stops uploading without a word? “Bummer”. I appreciate them for what they made, but I have no right to demand more than that.

This movie is also inspiring: you can just make things! The movie, along with the brief talk before the screening by the sisters and a representative from Scarecrow Video, said as much. I need a constant reminder of that fact it seems. I got the exact kind of feeling that I get when a friend talks about things they are up to and passionate about, it’s infectious. All that to say: m. sisters, you did a great job. Everyone who helped make this movie come together should be proud.