This website’s namesake, Edgar Allan Poe, once wrote in his essay The Philosophy of Composition, that the death of a beautiful woman is the most poetical topic in the world. I admit that this assertion might not hold up in our modern progressive political and social worldviews. However, we can extrapolate this idea to the death of any loved one, a person who has shared our most important experiences and memories only to be rent away from us when we least expect it. It is a real to life and looming horror that many of us have faced or will face in the future. This is the underlying thesis of director/writer Jeremiah Kipp‘s short film, Slapface (2017).
Short films are deliberate and impactful, in fact, in The Philosophy of Composition, Poe coins the term ‘unity of effect.’ This is the idea that short stories have the power to facilitate a focused total emotional response because the author is forced to leave any non-essential elements out of the story and the reader will have fewer distractions from the intent of the piece. Kipp exemplifies Poe’s method in this short film as all elements such as the tone, setting, characters, plot, and conflict are deliberately concentrated on the central theme: The pain of sudden loss is like an insulting slap in the face.
How will we manage to deal with this pain? How have others coped with loss? Will we rise up to meet our grief face to face, will we lash out at loved ones left behind, or will we seek relief in denial and medication? These questions are explored and personified in Kipp’s short film as a boy and his father learn to live with the past and embrace a new uncertain future.
