Week 7: "The Year I Broke My Voice"

As a part of their Sex+Gender Film Series, the Women's Resources Center featured "The Year I Broke My Voice" by Madsen Minax. I had only read a short description of the film before attending, and the only thing I could recall was that it was supposed to have some sort of 'coming of age' theme.
*Spoiler alert*

The film itself is actually only 47 minutes, so it wasn't your typical Hollywood flick. In fact, most of the film was anything but Hollywood, at least content-wise. The majority of the film is comprised of long shots and carefully composed visuals, with peculiar sound effects and music overlaying some of the scenes. Okay, maybe it doesn't sound too different from every other movie but this one just seemed like it was on a different page altogether. If there is a predictable plot or traditional story line, it's not very obvious. Rather the emphasis is on the group of actors. We are presented with multiple young characters, some of whom remain unnamed throughout the film. The age and gender of each individual is also fairly ambiguous, and that seems to be an essential theme overall.

 Many of the figures are boyishly handsome, but a few have very unique looks and voices. They are all youthful, yet they seem to carry a lot of weight on their shoulders in regards to acceptance, identity, sexuality, lust, and love. It was only after the viewing was over that I realized each scene of the film is inspired by or uses material from popular texts and films such as The Outsiders (1983), Stand By Me (1986), and The Year My Voice Broke (1987). 
What's interesting is that this film seems to create a truly desolate sort of environment, with a complete lack of adults or any concrete sense of the outside world. Amazingly enough, the director Madsen Minax was also present to watch the screening with us, and elaborate a little more on the film. Science fiction from the 50's and 60's has always been a driving thematic in his work, and this time he utilized the aforementioned coming-of-age films from the 1980s as his main sources.

I was somewhat surprised to find out that the actors in this were all friends of Minax's. Unlike your traditional movies, there wasn't much of a budget or rehearsal time. For some of the actors, the first time they had seen the scripts were on the day shooting began. Another challenge they faced was the fact that they were filming during the winter season. Clearly, this didn't stop the team from creating a strange little cinematic world. In order to appreciate the film, Minax said that the "willingness to go on a trip of random happenings" is key. I definitely agree with him there. This is one of those films that I feel like I would need to watch a few more times to really get some clarity; the ending left me puzzled. However, it successfully took me out out of Champaign and into this weird other place - that may not be as foreign as I originally thought.
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Passing through day into night, the film closes off in a nocturnal state of indeterminacy. Nothing is repaired or improved, at least not overtly, but characters have shared tentative affection with one another, and those risks have subtly shifted their social landscape. The film’s refusal to offer any easy answers leaves the audience pondering many of the questions the characters pose, long after they leave the bleak post-industrial landscape of the screen. 
-Matt Morris


  

Images: http://www.brokevoicefilm.com/stills.html