Small Time

the best of CINEJOY

by
Jenna Lyng Adams in BEFORE THE FIRE. Photo courtesy of Cinequest.

Cinejoy is Cinequest’s October virtual fest and it opens today. Some of the very best from the March festival return, along with some new indie gems that you can’t see anywhere else. I’ve updated my CINEQUEST page with reviews of nine Cinejoy films. Browse the films and buy tickets at CINEJOY.

MUST SEE

  • Before the Fire: In this year’s Must See at Cinequest, the only escape from an apocalyptic flu pandemic is a woman’s long-estranged rural hometown – but the scary family who traumatized her childhood is there, too. Written by its female star Jenna Lyng Adams, and the first feature by its female director Charlie Buhler, this indie thriller rocks. World premiere at Cinequest.

INDIES

  • Small Time: Rural America’s opioid crisis explored through its impact on one little girl; what is the shelf life of innocence? Shot over three years with insight and verisimilitude. World premiere at Cinequest.

WORLD CINEMA

  • Willow: This triptych by Oscar-nominated master Macedonian filmmaker Milcho Manchevski plumbs the heartaches and joys of having children; there’s a scene in the final vignette with a mother and son in a car that is one of the most amazing scenes I’ve ever seen. North American premiere at Cinequest.

LAUGHS

DOCUMENTARY

  • The Quicksilver Chronicles: Two bohemians live in a ghost town close (yet far) from Silicon Valley, and life happens. World premiere.

AND TWO I HAVEN’T SEEN YET

  • but they’ve got GREAT TITLES: The Return of Richard III on the 9:24 am Train and Erotic Fire of the Unattainable.
THE QUICKSILVER CHRONICLES. Photo courtesy of Cinequest.

SMALL TIME: innocence among the addicted

by
Audrey Grace Marshall in Niav Conty’s SMALL TIME, premiering at Cinequest. Photo courtesy of Cinequest.

Filmmaker Niav Cinty explores rural America’s opioid crisis through its impact on one little girl in Small Time. Emma (Audrey Grace Marshall) is growing up among damaged and ill-prepared adults who are modeling the worst possible lessons about drug use, parental responsiblity, handling firearms, choice of language and taking things that belong to someone else. This is an opioid-ravaged world in which the one character who actually saves two lives is the local abusive drug dealer. Emma sees things that no child should see.

Emma is spirited, smart and has a child’s pureness of heart.  Amidst the adult chaos, she’s baking cookies and thinking about the tooth fairy. But we have to ask, what is the shelf life of innocence? When will her environment take its toll?

Nobody is comfortable watching a child in bad situations, so why isn’t Small Time unwatchable? Writer-director Conty has mastered the tone by making Emma such a spirited, hopefully indomitable protagonist. And Conty embeds just enough humor in scenes with the local lunkheads playing the board game Risk and Emma turning the doctrinal tables on a priest, forcing him to resort to bluster.

The child actress Audrey Grace Marshall is very good. Conty shot Small Time over three years as Audrey ranged from seven to ten. Small Time was filmed on location in north central Pennsylvania.

Cinequest hosts the world premiere of Small Time.