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Ever talk to your cell phone? Scold it for not getting enough bars during an important call? C’mon, admit it—in our technology-dominated world, we humans have developed an incredible capacity for interacting with gadgets of all sorts.
TJ Martin—who by his own admission has a “great” relationship with his computer—was captivated enough by this frightening trend to condense it into “…Loves Martha,” one of three entries at Seattle International Film Festival’s annual Fly Films Festival. The event presents local filmmakers with a different set of constraints each year and turns them loose with limited time and resources to make their film “on the fly.” The ten-minute short centers on Richard Stoker, a data entry clerk who Martin describes as completely disillusioned and overworked. Adds Martin, “He doesn’t have much of a life and hates his job.”.
That is until he meets Martha. Weighing in at a compact 21 pounds and comprised of the finest Taiwanese plastics available, Martha is the office copy machine. And Martin, for his part, uses Richard and Martha’s burgeoning love affair to tell a tale of Americans’ obsessions with their jobs and the tools needed to sustain them.
“He (Richard) kind of takes you on this whole adventure of the process of falling in love with her, and then it becomes somewhat tragic,” Martin said, though he was careful not to offer any details on the film’s wrenching climax. When pressed, Martin concedes that “…Loves Martha” is meant to showcase a broader tragedy. “Because we are so concerned by our daily minutiae of bullshit, we tend to develop a rapport with things like the television screen, for example. You always have sports fans coaching their fucking teams through the television screen.”
I immediately realized that just one night earlier, I screamed at a television like it owed me money while watching the Sonics win a playoff game. Then I realized I also have a vocal relationship with my car, phone, laptop, and Ketel One vodka. Maybe “…Loves Martha” isn’t so far-fetched.
Two years ago, directors chose single-word categories out of a hat and were given five minutes to express their topic in a documentary-style short. This year, Martin and three others—Sue Corcoran and Thom Harp round out the narrative field, and Andy McAllister has been tapped to produce a “making of” documentary—were given ten minutes to make an original or narrative work, cast the same union actor in each of their films, feature the Seattle Public Library, AND pay homage to one of the festival’s major sponsors. Not unlike a sort of independent cinematic boot camp. “…Loves Martha” was conceived, written and cast in a matter of days, then shot and edited to completion over the next two weeks, an extreme task for a film of any length.
Martin likes the challenge. “It’s so hard alone just to make a movie, and then to try and confine it to these little doctrines to follow, it’s just a wealth of stress. In retrospect, though, it’s rewarding in the sense of just being able to accomplish it.”
For more information on all SIFF films and the Fly Filmmaker program, visit seattlefilm.com.
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