YesterYear – A Short Film Review
Yesteryear is a documentary that looks back at archive home video footage of years gone by allowing you t oreflect back on your own memories and reminisce on times gone by in ths very emotionally stimulating short.
What’s It All About?
A compilation of home movies that explores and celebrates nostalgia and memories. Inspired amid the global pandemic of COVID-19 and the uncertainty it brings, the goal of this documentary was to bring positivity and celebrate life.
My Opinion
Chris Esper has given us something very intriguing. Although this is classed as a documentary I would definitely be going down the road of experimental film. Never has a short film given me so much self-contemplation and reflection. This short is such a simple idea, yet one that seems extremely powerful. There is no performance, no narration, nothing that can be compared or judged against anything I have seen before. In its simplest form this is a collection of home movies and archived footage edited together. However this is not all it is.
In Esper’s own words this short is a visual piece reflecting upon “simpler times”. The piece is put together very sympathetically, with a lot of care. With this being archive home video footage the quality does vary quite a lot but nothing that takes anything away from the piece. In this instance the varying quality adds to the short, bringing your own memories of home video into play. The quality of the footage only adds to that sense of nostalgia and age of the film. I think that is what makes this short so appealing, the fact that it is so relateable. It allows you to be able to reminisce about your own family and your own memories. This is a very personal look into someone elses memories and Esper gives it the care and attention it deserves.
The film is housed between the turning on and turning off of an old projector. We take this journey into the past with the person watching the film, presumably Esper himself, as if we are watching it together. I think this sense of watching it with the projector operator gives you the that feeling that you are watchign it together and sharing this experience, even though everybodies experience will be different as the power of the short is in how it brings back your own memories of years gone by.
This short is suberbly scored by Steven Lanning-Cafaro who gives us an emotionally-charged piece which is very fitting for the footage shown, stirring up a powerful connection with the audience. The soundtrack only elevates the film.
I feel that this short is at its best when showcasing Christmases, birthdays or celebrations. An overarching theme that ties the various clips together makes for very powerful watching. When there clips aren’t connected, you lose that connection that you have with the film. THe non-linear style of editing these clips is at its best when they clips share a similar theme, however when there is no theme the clips feel as if they become a little disjointed and as a viewer, becoming a little disconnected.
In my opinion I think that this short could have benefited from some simple narration or guidance between the groups of clips, or a simple explanation, even informal chatter by the person watching through the projector to the audience. Having this would help to guide the audinece on this journey that they take while watching. I feel that having a little structure would stop the viewer becoming lost within this short and help it to have more of an emotional impact with the audience. Some of the clips are pretty self-explanatory, such as the Christmas clips, but there are others where I wasn’t sure of the connection. It is in these moments where I felt a little lost and some narration would have kept me on track. Once you lose that connection this simply turns into home video clips edited together.
The Verdict
Yesteryear offers us a very personal look into some family moments of years gone past. Intruding on these intimate occasions allows us to look back and see our own family get-togethers and reflect on our own memories. A very well edited piece with a lot of time and care being put into the editing. The score compliments the footage very well and elevates the film as a whole. The short is at its best when presenting a collection of relating clips with similar themes. I feel like some narration or a little creative guidance would have helped the audience follow this journey into the past.
