Small, Beautifully Moving Parts

USA, 2011, 73 Minute Running Time
Genre/Subjects: Comedy, Drama, Family Issues, Technology/Science, Womens Issues
Program: Contemporary World Cinema
Language: English

DIRECTOR: Annie J. Howell, Lisa Robinson
Producer: Annie Howell, Lisa Robinson, Jen Dougherty
Editor: Jennifer Lee
Screenwriter: Annie J. Howell, Lisa Robinson
Cinematographer: Charles Swanson
Principal Cast: Anna Margaret Hollyman, Andre Holland, Sarah Rafferty, Mary Beth Peil, Susan Kelechi Watson, Richard Hoag

MUST END Thursday May 31st!
Digital presentation - Sarah Sparks is a freelance “technologist” who repairs everything from new computers to old-fashioned radios and considers it part of her job to interview strangers in public places about the role technology plays in their lives. When she and her boyfriend, Leon, find out she’s pregnant, she comments on the font used on the pregnancy test. Ambivalent and concerned about her lack of parenting skills, she wishes her dealings with people could be as uncomplicated as her interactions with technological devices.

Setting off to visit her sister, Sarah decides that she must contact her estranged mother to find out how to become a mother herself. She also makes a detour to visit her father, where she finds out that her mother has moved to the desert to live off the grid. What ensues is a classic, highly likeable indie road movie. As Sarah’s gadgets begin to fail, she has to learn to depend on herself. Without the protective shield of her virtual world, Sarah faces the complicated nature of real-life connection.

This subtly quirky comedy is based on a web series that writer-directors Annie J. Howell and Lisa Robinson aired on the Sundance Channel. Howell says the duo was interested in examining how “people’s relationships to technology have taken on the qualities of human relationships.” The result is simply charming.
—REBECCA CARO

Official Film Website