FILM REVIEW:

FUTURE STORY (2020)

By Khat Patrong

Future Story, a mixed media short film on lifestyle and club culture. Director Kenneth Lartey’s short film has the absence of narrative, with the focus being music and dance. With rapid editing techniques overlaid with a chopped and screwed Future song. This niche in filmmaking is one that is rarely experimented, with a pop culture blend. Gene Youngblood, a writer on experimental film, has a well known book titled Expanded Cinema, that considers this form of filmmaking a blend of computer and media art form. ‘Future Story’ could accompany an art exhibit on club culture, the music industry, and its effects on young minds. If I were a museum coordinator, that’s an exhibit I’d like to put together.

“His experimental piece showcases the image of a true community lifestyle”

Kenneth Lartey uses a blend of distorted images and unrecognizable faces. His experimental piece showcases the image of a true community lifestyle. One could say Lartey also does an exceptional job of breathing air into the ideology of Generation Z’s vision of “escapism” . Imagine surrounding a local DJ with a bunch of your friends, Boiler Room-style. The energy is intensifying, and a mosh pit begins to form. That is the vibe.

When I first watched the film I thought the opening sequence was opening up to a documentary. I wanted more from this piece, that isn’t normally depicted in experimental art pieces. Four minutes long with a repetitive nature - this film is a very “different” kind of filmmaking. The piece is so expansive that Lartey didn’t box himself into a typical structure of beginning, middle, and end. No narrative. No protagonists. The stylistic value is the character and it expands on a certain “expression” we rarely see in modern day directing.

Written by Kenneth Lartey

Directed by Kenneth Lartey and Eric Foster

Here’s the link to watch the full short film: Future Story