Matthew Paris wrote, directed, and stars in black and white short film The Things We Hold Sacred. A question hangs in the air: what would you do on your last day if you knew the world was going to end? In this film, we are told an asteroid is going to strike the earth and end human life today.
He opens with Americana… U.S. flags arrayed as if for the 4th of July. He also mentions his religious faith.There is no dialogue. Most of the film consists of random shots of driving around a town with woods and parks, with text cards displayed between the shots. Different musical dynamics set the tone. Some upbeat and driving, some reflective. The black and white images have a flickering “scratchy old film” filter applied.
An interesting contrast in tone to exhortations about valuing the precious moments in life is that the main character (Paris) is alone on his last day, no kids, no wife, no friends … wouldn’t most of us gather with friends and family, pull them close and look into their eyes one last time? U.K. New Wave band Ultravox presented this scenario in their song Dancing With Tears in My Eyes, and there was wine and sex and music and companionship. This man’s walls have no art. His life has no color. He sits before a television in an empty room eating bread and drinking bottled water. It occurs to me that he is getting off easy. Perhaps for him, the end of the world is more sweet release than catastrophe.
“…what would you do on your last day if you knew the world was going to end?”
Filmically, the work is flawed. It plays more like a video blog entry than a movie. There are misspellings and grammatical errors in the displayed text cards. The screener was sent from a predominantly right-wing video sharing site (but Paris, thankfully, doesn’t wander down that tricky path: there’s no politics in the film) and was interrupted by ads during playback.
The opening references to America and religious faith (presumably focused on the Judeo-Christian deity, but he doesn’t specify) feel jingoistic and preachy. A snarky pragmatist might ask why the deity is lobbing asteroids at us to begin with? Maybe we could clean up our act and stop pissing him off to avoid this drama? The film puts you in a place of considering these questions, and that thoughtfulness may be the point.
While there is an interesting set of symbols of the good life presented, it’s not entirely clear what Paris is getting at here. Something about being mindful and counting our blessings? Is this a reference to Memento Mori to remind us that our time is finite? Those are always good thoughts to re-calibrate your mind when life gets busy and complicated, and perhaps a viewer can take these 18 minutes to consider the positive energies and happiness in their lives.
"…18 minutes to consider the positive energies and happiness in life..."
