Anushka Nair and Lauryn Anthony’s animated comic short film “Period Drama” delivers both a groan-worthy pun and another humorous take on one of the themes of the recent Pixar movie “Turning Red.”
In Victorian England, 11 year old Georgina Crimsworth discovers one night that she’s bled onto her bedsheets for no apparent reason. Precocious and imaginative and also ignorant of the concept of her body’s first period, the girl’s mind gallops through various causes and cures for what just happened. The film’s narration is almost breathless as the little girl at a mental speed surpassing that of The Flash considers and rejects such possibilities as vampirism, the damnation of her soul, and even the need to be resurrected a la Frankenstein’s monster.
Georgina’s amusing wild imaginings are understandable given her ignorance of how her body functions. Yet it shouldn’t be forgotten that in the Victorian era, the knowledge Georgina’s mother possessed regarding female bodily functions was unlikely to be much deeper than what little knowledge her child has. Perhaps the short film’s final (but admittedly funny) horror should be seen as a logical consequence of the state of Georgina’s ignorance.
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There are two films called “Tomorrow” in this year’s Cinequest lineup. Jessica Liu’s “Tomorrow” is the short film with that title, an effort like “Period Drama” to mix comedy and horror. Again, the two elements are blended to deal with a familiar female emotional problem. The trouble is, this film winds up being much less sympathetic to its female lead character.
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