Performed and recorded live at Phoenix Central Park, Sydney, Australia, The Fall by Genesis Owusu, brings to life a deeply personal conversation which, in the process, acquires a universality in its reach and the experience it presents to the audience. In a world where conversation around race and identity gains increasing relevance every day, the stunning music video invokes a discussion on the ideas of oppressive spaces, both within and without. 

We are hurled headlong into a realm that is marked by a protagonist who is held captive by tightly wound ropes. However, amidst the struggle to break free, his voice remains loud and clear, a gleeful, near-delirious grin never leaving his face. It is indeed in this visual that the narrative lays bare its primary thematic concern. It is also in this manner that the personal becomes political, allowing the vocals and the visuals to work in tandem with each other, rather than one triumphing or overpowering the other. 

 The video is especially notable for how it exhibits the creative range of Versus, evident in their usage of the same physical space as seen in a previous video ('Refracted' by Gordi), transforming it to tell a story completely different in texture and the intentions it communicates to the viewer. Consequently, while microphones, architecture, the overwhelming nature of art - all of them find an echo in the claustrophobic cornices, again, both physical and mental, the words "Get your hands off my mind...I cant breathe now", stay with you long after you're done interacting with 'The Fall'.

The Fall | Short Film of the Day

It is at the intersection of emotional lines and the literal geometry of physical architecture that 'Refracted' is born. Gordi (Sophie Payten)'s haunting vocals are coupled with symmetrical structures that allow their intimacy, marked by a disconcerting beauty, to find visual representation. Lights and shadows are employed to suggest different levels of intensity, along with a whole spectrum of emotions getting echoed in the lyrics. 

 The music is equipped with an elemental incandescence that ensures that the final product works on multiple levels. Combining two of Gordi's creations - Extraordinary Life and Volcanic, as they are performed within the walls of the Phoenix Central Park in Sydney, Australia, the music video acquires a separate existence of its own. Its seamless, sophisticated visuals become the protagonist in themselves, alongside Gordi's spectral presence on screen. 

Additionally, both the performer and the performance, only serve to complement and enhance one another. On the whole, the final result comes to be marked by a powerful otherworldly quality that further ties together the various elements in an elegant, notable and skilled manner.

Refracted | Short Film of the Month

The music video triggers several ideas to pace through your mind while trying to truly comprehend the visuals on screen. The palette is cool, the colours minimal and the location stunning. It is seemingly the story of a protagonist and his relationship with a horse. There is a surreal, otherworldly, abstract emotion that can be associated with the whole video, only further supplemented by its mesmerising and closely controlled vocals. The writing and the visuals exhibit a sophisticated weaving together, with not even a single extra moment wasted on either. The narrative takes its time to build, and yet does not under-utilise any component or element to put forth its message. Both the video and the song are essentially about power, race and the colour of the skin perhaps. It is a reminder to not trivialise someone's well-directed anger and emotion and simply render their discontent a "lover's quarrel". The lyrics demand an equality which seems to be missing when a disagreement is defined in this manner, hinting that it is one of equals. However, how can it be a conversation of equals if even the mere presence of this discrimination is brushed aside? The video raises this question in a poignant manner and leaves the viewer grappling with its potential answers.

Quarrel | Short Film of the Day

The music video most beautifully addresses a storm within - one of familial conflicts and domestic upheavals, as well as a storm without - Hurricane Maria of 2017. Following the story of a woman who is a single mother to two daughters, the song invokes the forever forward moving motion of life that waits for none. Irrespective of the destruction the Hurricane left in its wake in Puerto Rico, the resilient human spirit refuses to give in. Once again houses are raised from the rubble and business goes on as usual. Along with everything else, the video is also a comment on survival and how life will continue to thrive in the face of all adversity. Be it a natural disaster that uprooted houses or be it our own choices of choosing partners that threatened and perhaps even proved to be extremely tumultuous for our lives, there is nothing that truly stops the protagonist from pushing through, if for nothing then for her daughters. Mela Murder delivers the most stellar performance as Milagros, the woman who takes on the world singlehandedly as a perseverant mother. She translates the vulnerability as well as the fierceness of her character gloriously to the screen. This, when coupled with soulful vocals by Alynda Mariposa Segarra, and intelligently chosen visuals that tell Milagros' story, along with a chapter from the life of Puerto Rico, offer a brilliantly achieved narrative and music video.

Pa'lante | Short Film of the Day

The narrative introduces us to two lovers and a realm marked by separation, intimacy, and unmistakable vulnerability that ties it all together. The film and its namesake music album take audiences on a meaningful journey that is mapped and crafted with thoughtfulness and meticulous care. 

The several tracks taken from the same album conjure metaphors of love, relationships, heartbreak, acceptance, and loss. These are coupled with an intrinsic presence of nature, of thunder and lightning, of the vast expanses of the sea and the sky to further echo everything the narrative intends to convey. The rhythm of the music is tied to the emotional ups and downs of the protagonist, alongside being located within nature's many moods and hues, as if nature itself is the third character present alongside the lovers. 

The camerawork and the visuals it paints are equally and competently supported by the vocals that become an overarching, defining element of the film. The screenplay and the visual grammar employed are stunning not simply in terms of aesthetics but also the emotions they evoke. Consequently, the final result becomes a seamless union of skill and thought, with a deep authenticity of emotion and its expression.

What You Do Alone | Short Film of the Month

Eschewing hackneyed visuals that might often accompany noise-rock, ‘Macca the Mutt’ presents to you a world of its own. Complete with a characteristic grittiness and unmissable texture, the music video stands firmly on its two feet. The uniqueness of tonality and approach are the main factors allowing the visuals to succeed in this manner. 

With Party Dozen's Kirsty Tickle on the saxophone and Jonathan Boulet on percussion, the video conjures distortions and vocal modifications to present its reality to you. While at first glance one might expect a steam-punk aesthetic, the expectation is soon foiled as the video progresses. This is further coupled with musician and singer Nick Cave’s repeated refrain at the end, also marking an exception to the famously reclusive pattern of the artist when it comes to collaboration with other artists and musicians. 

In a song that is devoid of all lyrics, save for the refrain, the thematic motivations and their interpretations are the responsibility more of the audience than the creators themselves. However, the video still presents a sense of mundane, futile cyclicality of life, an allusion to a working-class existence and that of manual labor, which is immediately tied with the disruptive sense of discomfort that the song weaves in. 

Since the video is very genre-specific, it is not for everyone. And yet, what you make of it is your prerogative entirely, as the vocals and the emotions behind them get reflected in the visual narrative before you.

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