As Benjamin Walter Jones and David Perault’s short film The Eyes That Watch Your Home plays out, we get voiceover narration and a piano score augmenting predominantly black and white imagery of first a young boy (Kai Jones) interacting around his home, then a young woman (Bree Molitor) depressed and in debt, a happy couple (Aaron Geiger and Ellen Williams) and finally a man (Ben Jones) overdosing on prescription drugs. It’s a visual poem, commenting on the complexities of life, in both positive and negative expressions, all while different types of cameras rest on the periphery.
But that’s one interpretation; this is probably a film best experienced twice, maybe even three times (it is short enough to do so without horribly cramping your schedule). For the first watch, I’d just experience it as is. Second time through, I’d close my eyes and listen only to the narration, to see what images it evokes of itself. Finally, I’d watch it a final time, seeing how the imagery that was utilized does or doesn’t work with the ideas that the words created.
Of course, if you find it silly, or pretentious, on the first watch, you can spare yourself subsequent viewings. If you do find substance in it, however, those extra trips along with it may offer a new perspective, for as much as it operates as a visual poem, there’s something eerily hypnotic about it too, almost like a guided meditation. Maybe that’s more of a reaction to how soothing it sounds, but I wouldn’t be surprised if the same principles are at play.
Like most experimental narratives or short films that are less obvious in their tales, the value rests with the audience. For me, I found it to be interesting and meditative, but at the same time I don’t think it says or shows anything terribly intriguing. It works for what it is, as it is, but it doesn’t stand out too much from a crowd of similar visually poetic fare.
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