‘A Reason to Change’ is that kind of short film that is very hard to be categorized precisely. It is a documentary, a music video and an experimental video, all at once. For a better understanding of the phenomenon described by Stacey M. Zipfel, we will take this movie in every way possible and see where it fits best.
First of all, some technicalities: the cinematography of this short is quite good, the edit and the cast are very good, the score is pretty neat, the general atmosphere is one of some 90’s- early 2000’s music video that we all loved at once.
From a music video perspective, this short is pretty convincing. We have a tragic case of cancer that can be found in pets and in human beings. The way of dealing with it is by having a general view and work with both animals and humans at the same time. It is comparable as feeling with Soul Asylum’s ‘Runaway Train’, where the music video dealt with missing people in the United States.
As a documentary, this short uses winning technique – the general flashback. In the beginning we can see the young doctor staring at a board with pictures of animals and focuses his attention on a particular one of a dog. The next scene is a trip to the past where we find a young boy looking at the same board and then another flashback of him playing with the dog in the backyard. The ending brings us back in the same spot in the hospital with the same doctor leaving that spot and going back at his desk. It can be seen as a documentary in a very artistic way, which is good, because it is some time since we’ve last seen something like this.
As an experimental, it is quite hard to see it, because it doesn’t come with innovative ideas at first. But it does combine the mood of a sad music video with the critical aspects of a documentary, so we may easily say that the whole video construction is indeed an experimental video that really makes you wonder. The whole symbolic reign found in this short movie can be discussed in some serious pages, but we will end here with the remark that, ‘A Reason to Change’ is a game-changer in this business and we totally should keep an eye on its future path.
Written by Vlad A. G