I recently screened a film that was inspired by true events called Morning After, which won the Flicker’s Ambassador Award (Rhode Island Int’l Film Festival (Providence, RI, USA). The film is a fifteen minute short about sexual fluidity amongst Millennials. The “No Label” generation. The film was directed by Patricia Chica and written by Kristian Hodko.

Films like this one are hard to write about. Mainly because while there was some dialogue, the short really relies on visuals to tell the story. Like during one scene the main character starts thinking about something and they have it take a physical form in the scene as he’s processing it, which was a great visual and made a good impact on the scene. It’s just hard to talk about a film that has so much going on with visuals without spoiling the story for others.

Morning After is about a guy named Michael that has come back to his hometown after spending two years aboard. Michael’s friend, Edward, throws a welcome home party to introduce Michael to his friends. During a provocative game of chocolate tasting Michael is shown the openness of the group around him. Now, Michael must face a dilemma he’s had for awhile, which is his own sexual identity and are labels really that important.

The story is pretty short and simple, but makes you think about the subject, do labels really matter in today’s world? Again, there’s not a lot of dialogue to the short. Just enough to launch the story and move it along to the next scene. It’s the visuals that really tell the story. Watching Michael’s reactions, the flow of the people around him and seeing him find the answers he’s been searching for.

The playthrough was good, but it felt like it moved along kind of slow. The story is told in a very relaxed, no pressure kind of way. Its goal is to show life from someone else’s point of view and it does just that.

The cast is Thomas Vallières (Game of Death), Zoé de Grand Maison (Orphan Black), Joey Scarpellino (The Parents), Jordana Lajoie (Patrice Lemieux 24/7) and Kristian Hodko (The Howling: Reborn).

Morning After’s music was composed by Vivien Villani and I have to say, the music was one of my favorite parts of the short.

Summary : Overall, it's a thought-provoking piece that raises the question asked my many, are labels really that important?

It's rated UR (unrated)




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