Deerwoods Deathtrap

This sweet short from James P Gannon - whose previous film Betty Feeds The Animals also featured his mum - has a humour that comes as a surprise, given that the film sees his parents recollecting the day 50 years before when they almost died.

The director gives the story the feel of an old home movie by shooting on Super 8, although the colours turn out to be more vivid than the memories of his mum and dad Betty and Jack, as they conjure up the day their car - with two of their kids and one of their mothers in the back - got hit by a train. We can tell, of course, by their very presence that they dodged tragedy, but the tale plays out in quirky fashion as the duo disagree about key elements.Was the music playing that day? What happened after the train hit? Did it bring them closer together?

The use of that Super 8 is crucial to the feel of the film, already giving it the emotional quality of something that is remembered, even though we know on an intellectual level it is a contemporary item. The use of photographic slides to show snapshots of the family as it then was only further cements the feeling of stepping back in time with these memories. Gannon uses the camera to generate a thriller element as the film progresses and Jack talks about coming "face to face" with the train - the Super 8 becomes super-saturated, with freeze frame employed in the manner of a Seventies B movie at the perfect moment. The humour may suggest the director doesn't take himself too seriously (something only confirmed by his Meet the Artist video) but, by contrast, he seriously pays attention to the possibilities Super 8 offers and exploits them to the full.