Sidewalk Moving Picture Festival 2008

Conceived and executed by the youthful Court 13 collective–who is also responsible for the award-winning short Death to the Tinman–Glory at Sea ups the ante of Ray Tinori’s stylish, invigorating work by telling the story of a group of individuals struggling to survive in an apocalyptic post-Katrina New Orleans. Zeitlin’s vision of a dilapidated future feels strangely archaic, as if the storm destroyed the past half-century of technology, instead leaving behind mementos of an earlier era (bathtub, wooden bed, acoustic guitar, trumpet, etc.). The residents in this flooded world have no use for technology, for without electricity, what good is technology? And without their families, what good is anything? Their only desire is to sail into the sea in order to reunite with their loved ones, who are submerged somewhere under all of that water. To do that, they must band together as a community–in the most spiritual sense of that word–and use their own hands to build a boat from scratch. All they’ve got is their undying spirit, hope, and love to keep them going. According to Zeitlin’s unapologetically sincere vision, that’s more than enough. – Michael Tully – Hammer to Nail