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by Xion Abidoun
“7 Minutes in Heaven” screens on Saturday June 17th in the block of films from 1-6pm at the African American Art and Culture Complex, 762 Fulton St, in San Francisco. You can purchase tickets online at www.sfbff.org.
Astonished, shocked, flabbergasted, stunned, impressed and entertained. These are all words I would use to describe my feelings for the film ‘7 Minutes in Heaven.’ This short film is the type of movie that will have you sitting at the edge of your seat for the whole movie, thinking to yourself, “What’s next?”
Let me just start by saying the visuals in the movie were so pretty. I really appreciated the fact that the people who were in charge of the lighting in the film really took the time and energy to capture the various skin tones in the film, in different colors of the lighting and managed to make everyone’s skin tone look nice in it.
For example, a majority of the film was in a bluish and purplish light, but all the different skin tones in the movie popped out. That is very important to me because I feel like that is something that a lot of films lack, knowing how to capture everyone in their cast in a good light. This movie did exactly that, made all the actors look amazing in the colorful light.
I also feel like the choice of color in the lighting gave the film more depth and overall added to the mood of the film. Something about the blue light contributed more to the anxious feeling that the film gave me. I guess it was because when I think of blue I think of water, and water scares me because it can help create beautiful things but destroy them as well. And the purple light mixed with the blue lighting added to that film’s secretive feeling.
It’s just something about the color purple that made the film feel more suspenseful, worrisome, and daunting.
If you like surprises, exciting plots and plenty of drama in a movie then this is the film for you. A woman is having a baby and celebrating it by having a baby shower, with her husband of course! Everyone is having a great time until the woman pulls her best friend into the closet with her and tells him something that will change both of their lives forever. As they are exiting the closet they find the husband standing in front of the doors, and he basically says he heard everything they said, and he does not look happy. What did the wife say to her best friend that made her husband upset? What did he hear?
The movie made me feel emotions like excitement and anxiousness, as well as sympathy and sadness. The movie made me feel all of these strong emotions in only 10 minutes! There was a lot going on in the movie, but not any minute of it was dull. I give it a 10/10 overall.
“7 minutes In Heaven” was a cinematic masterpiece that I would watch again. As a fellow artist, I have to say that only a true creative can come up with a storyline this interesting and find a way to capture it visually in only 10 minutes. But even though the film was so short, it was so interesting that it leaves you thinking about the story for days.
Xion Abiodun is a student at Madison Park Academy and can be reached at Xion.abiodun@gmail.com. She is also a dancer and a student of the Community Journalism Program.
