Unlike “Please Kill Mr. Kinski,” this monologue-based short is anything but deskbound. Director Levin has obviously brushed up on his recent Soderbergh, judging from the free-wheeling bounce around the space-time continuum he pulls off here. The motormouth protagonist is Andrew Gurland, who co-wrote the script (based on his own experiences) with Levin. Playing a restaurant employee taking a ten-minute break with his co-workers, Gurland unravels the shaggy dog tale that explains the eye-catching title. Or does it? Gurland’s story is as non-linear as the directorial technique, and the result is a dizzying spin through the streets of New York in the 80’s and 90’s. The details are too convoluted to go into here – suffice it to say that racial tension is the central theme, and that highlights include the ingesting of psychedelic mushrooms, a potential menage a trois, a mugging, and the unwarranted stomping of Gurland’s specs. “Black People Hate Me” is fast, funny and fluid – though the narrative skips breathlessly around in time, we never lose the thread. Dozens of characters and locations are juggled, but Levin keeps all the balls in the air. Gurland is Woody Allen as frizzy-haired hipster, and has an appealing sense of comic delivery. If “Black People Hate Me” were any longer, the hyperactive technique might become exhausting. At fourteen minutes, however, it’s more adventurous, involving and filled with life than many feature films. (“Black People Hate Me and They Hate My Glasses” can be viewed at ifilm.com.)
